Overview

DPX protects SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups. which are designed to improve the resiliency of SQL Server instances. AlwayOn Availability is configured by setting up a Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) resource, joining servers with SQL instances to AlwaysOn availability groups, and then arranging for primary and secondary copies of SQL databases to join the availability group. The WSFC cluster and availability group services manage the monitoring, failover, and request redirection for the database availability group. For a technical overview of SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups concepts, see msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877884.aspx.

Note the following important protection considerations, described in more detail below:

  • Restoration of a SharePoint database under Microsoft AlwaysOn Availability Group requires that the group already exist and be configured with an active listener. The availability group must have at least 1 database configured in the group in order for DPX to recognize it as a valid destination for restore. See SharePoint Installation and Configuration Requirements.

  • Restore can only occur on the node acting as the primary replica for the availability group. DPX cannot recover an availability group database if the desired database is already active in the availability group. To restore data, a standalone SQL database with the desired name must be created on the availability group primary replica node. When the database is restored, it is first restored to the standalone instance on the primary replica node and then merged into the Availability group when the data transfer is completed. If you are recovering to an existing database, you must either rename the active database, delete it, or move the database out of the availability group so that the recovered copy can be added to the availability group.

  • Backup of high-availability primary database copies is supported. Backup of secondary replicas is not supported.

  • Secondary storage and Catalogic Software product license consumption will roughly equal the sum of all the storage devices across all cluster nodes.

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