Module 7: SQL Server Special Considerations

Overview

SQL Server High Availability

Unicode

Lesson: SQL Server High Availability

Designing for High Availability (HA)Where to Start?OS options for SQL ServerSQL Server High AvailabilityWindows Clustering TerminologyCluster Resource DependenciesTroubleshootingSQL Server HA information

Designing for High Availability (HA)

HA is about people and processes – technology is just the enabler

Understand the level of HA expected so you can focus

99.999% 5 minutes per year 98% 7.3 days per year

99.99% 53 minutes per year 97% 11 days per year

99.9% 8.8 hours per year 95% 18.3 days per year

99% 3.6 days per year 90% 36.5 days per year

Identify risks and exposures, and understand tradeoffs

Review all single points of failure

Redundancy is crucial, but don’t forget plans for contingency/disasters

Where to Start?

What is the level of HA expected?

Configure enough processing power to handle the workload after a failover.

Use compatible hardware. Entire cluster solution must be in the Windows Catalog or on the former Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

Use only certified drivers. Crucial for disk devices

Use the right version of the OS

Use the right version of SQL Server

Goal is to have a supported and known configuration

Check for best practices. Look for White Papers on networking, configuration, etc.

OS options for SQL Server

Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Max 8 Processors. Max 8 Gb Memory.

Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. Max 32 Processors. Max 32 Gb Memory.

Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. Max 8 Processors. Max 32 Gb Memory (32-bit) or Max 64 Gb Memory (64-bit).

Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition. Min 8 Processors and Max 64 Processors. Max 64 Gb Memory (32-bit) or Max 512 Gb Memory (64-bit).

SQL Server High Availability

Failover clustering. Automatic. Great for close distances

Log Shipping. Manual/Scheduled. OK for some levels of HA. Great for disaster recovery or spanning distances

Native SQL Server Replication. Not an option unless applying schema changes outside of Siebel Tools

Backup and Restore

Always test your backups!

Coordinate with backup/restore of Siebel File System

Windows Clustering Terminology

SQL Server 2000 availability clustering built on top of Windows Clustering.SQL Server 2000 availability clustering built on top of Windows Clustering.

Failover Clustering

Windows OS server cluster. Not for scale out.Windows OS server cluster. Not for scale out.Windows Clustering

SQL Server 2000 scale out.SQL Server 2000 scale out.Federated Server/Cluster

(formerly referred to as Active/Passive) Only one SQL Server virtual server concurrently running.(formerly referred to as Active/Passive) Only one SQL Server virtual server concurrently running.

Single Instance Cluster

(formerly referred to as Active/Active) Up to 16 SQL Server virtual servers per virtual cluster.(formerly referred to as Active/Active) Up to 16 SQL Server virtual servers per virtual cluster.

Multiple Instance Cluster

Cluster Resource Dependencies

SQL Server resources in a Cluster are dependent on other resources to run

Resources start in a particular order based on defined dependencies

Unless absolutely necessary, do not add resources as dependencies to the SQL Server resources. May cause an outage that has no relation to SQL Server

Troubleshooting

Diagnose in this order every time

Hardware issues

OS issues

Networking issues

Security issues

Windows Server cluster issues

SQL Server issues

Most problems are not related to SQL Server

SQL Server HA information

SQL Server 2000 High Availability. 754 pages. Book is published by Microsoft Press.

SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/failclus.mspx

Cluster Services in Windows Server 2003. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/clustering/default.mspx

Lesson: Unicode

Unicode Terminology

Unicode and Localization

Unicode, SQL Server, and Siebel

Unicode Terminology

May be referred to as 1252. Single-byte characters. Encompasses English (ENU), German (DEU), Spanish (ESN), etc.

May be referred to as 1252. Single-byte characters. Encompasses English (ENU), German (DEU), Spanish (ESN), etc.

Western European code

page

Defines how a byte sequence (number) is interpreted as a characterDefines how a byte sequence (number) is interpreted as a characterCode Page

May be referred to as SJIS. Double-byte characters.May be referred to as SJIS. Double-byte characters.Japanese code page

Combination of characters found in most other code pages. Satisfies 99%+ of language requirementsCombination of characters found in most other code pages. Satisfies 99%+ of language requirements

Unicode code page

Data in a database is stored as a sequence of bytes (numbers).

Unicode and Localization

Unicode is the storage of the data, whereas Localization is the display/usage of the data

Localization is a set of rules or processes guiding how locale-sensitive data is interpreted when input by a user and how such data is presented to the user.

USA: 10/20/2004 2:30:33 pm

Germany: 2004/10/20 14:30:33

Unicode, SQL Server, and Siebel

Obtain the latest version of the Release Notes and Supported Platforms documents from Siebel

Obtain Global Deployment Guide from Siebel Bookshelf

Support for Unicode will depend on your version of the Siebel product

Siebel requires SQL Server to use its UCS2 (Unicode) code page for a Unicode implementation

UCS2 is a true double-byte code page

SQL Server database size will double if converting from 1252 to UCS2

Review

SQL Server High Availability

Unicode