Course Description

This course is designed to familiarize database administrators with the concepts of SQL AlwaysOn and High Availability. The course uses SQL 2014, but explains the differences from SQL 2012.

Audience profile

This course is intended for SQL DBAs and IT professionals.

Goals

• Understand and use high availability and AlwaysOn concepts and terminology.
• Understand the SQL 2012 edition changes.
• Understand failover clustering.
• Understand log shipping.
• Understand replication.
• Understand database mirroring.
• Understand database snapshots.
• Understand the implementation of SQL failover clustering.
• Understand multi-site clustering.
• Understand the flexible failover policy.
• Understand and use AlwaysOn.
• Understand most nodes.
• Understand most nodes and disks.
• Understand most file and node shares.
• I don't understand the majority.
• Understand configuration options.
• Understand and use quorums.
• Understand application failover.
• Understand availability groups.
• Understand availability replicas.
• Understand and use AlwaysOn availability groups.
• Understand active secondary replicas.
• Understand readable secondary replicas.
• Understand backups on secondary replicas.
• Understand and use secondary availability group actions.
• Understand how to monitor AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
• Understand how to use the Control Panel.
• Understand the tools available for problem solving.

Course outline

Module 1: Course Summary

This module explains how the class will be structured and presents course materials and additional administrative information.

Lessons

• Introduction
• Course materials
• Facilities
• previous requirements
• What we will be discussing

Laboratory 1: Course Summary

• None

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Successfully log in to your virtual machine.
• Have a complete understanding of what the course aims to cover.

Module 2: High Availability and AlwaysOn Concepts and Terminology

In this module, we will cover concepts and terminology to help you better understand the purpose of AlwaysOn and help you utilize its flexibility. We will also explain common methods used to provide high availability solutions.

Lessons

• Concepts and Terminology
• SQL 2012 Edition Changes
• Failover Clusters
• Log submission
• Replication
• Database mirroring
• Database Snapshots

Lab 1: High Availability and AlwaysOn Concepts and Terminology

• None

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand and use high availability and AlwaysOn concepts and terminology.
• Understand the SQL 2012 edition changes.
• Understand failover clustering.
• Understand log shipping.

Module 3: Always on

In this module, we will discuss implementing SQL failover clustering, multi-site clustering, and explain the flexible failover policy provided with SQL Server AlwaysOn.

Lessons

• SQL Failover Cluster Deployment
• Multi-site clustering
• Flexible failover policy

Lab 1: Always On

• None

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand the implementation of SQL failover clustering.
• Understand multi-site clustering.
• Understand the flexible failover policy.
• Understand and use AlwaysOn.

Module 4: Understanding quorums

Quorums determine the number of failures a cluster can withstand, and if additional failures occur, the cluster will stop running. In this module, we discuss how to configure quorum and explain the available options.

Lessons

• Node Majority
• Node and disk majority
• Most file and node shares
• without majority
• Setting

Lab 1: Understanding Quorums

• Creating a Windows Failover Cluster

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand most nodes.
• Understand most nodes and disks.
• Understand most file and node shares.
• I don't understand the majority.
• Understand configuration options.
• Understand and use quorums.

Module 5: AlwaysOn Availability Groups

SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups give us the ability to group two or more databases and fail over both as a logical unit. In this module, we will explore how to configure and use availability groups.

Lessons

• Application failover
• Availability Group (AG)
• Availability Replica

Lab 1: AlwaysOn Availability Groups

• Enable AlwaysOn in SQL Server
• Test the failover cluster and add sample databases
• Create the high availability group
• Add replica and listener

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand application failover.
• Understand availability groups.
• Understand availability replicas.
• Understand and use AlwaysOn availability groups.

Module 6: Secondary Availability Group Actions

In AlwaysOn Availability Groups, an active secondary can be used for things like redirecting the read-only workload, offloading the backup load, and other tasks. In this module, we discuss how an active secondary replica works and explore some tasks that can be addressed with a secondary replica.

Lessons

• Active secondary replicas
• Readable secondary replicas
• Backups to secondary replicas

Lab 1: Secondary Availability Group Actions

• None

After completing this module, students will be able to:

• Understand active secondary replicas.
• Understand readable secondary replicas.
• Understand backups on secondary replicas.
• Understand and use secondary availability group actions.

Module 7: Monitoring

In this module, we will explain monitoring AlwaysOn Availability Groups, explore and use the dashboard, and discuss troubleshooting tools.

Lessons

• AlwaysOn Availability Group Monitoring
• Panel
• Troubleshooting tools

Laboratory 1: Monitoring

• Panel

• Understand how to monitor AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
• Understand how to use the Control Panel.
• Understand the tools available for problem solving.

Previous requirements

None

Language

• English course

• Labs: English