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Microsoft SQL Server Hosting Overview
Integrity, confidentiality and availability are absolute requirements when dealing with databases, a company’s repository for proprietary and sensitive information. NeoSpire takes database operations seriously and knows a company’s database server is likely the most critical asset within the hosted environment. Clients can expect premium-level service in regards to the day-to-day responsibilities of managing the database environment from our expert team of administrators.
Mission Critical Managed Hosting means never suffering unplanned downtime. NeoSpire manages some of the most serious business applications supported by MSSQL, and our experts can design and deploy the most appropriate high-availability solution based upon your technical and business requirements.
Sample Solutions
High Availability SQL Server Mirroring
Pro
- Fully transactional safe data replication
- Supports replication between physical locations
- Witness server provides for automatic failover
Con
- Mirror database is not online and cannot be queried
- Performance hit due to two-step, cross-node commit process
- Must license SQL server on the principal and mirror servers
Description:
A high availability mirroring solution supports maximum database availability with automatic failover to the mirror database if the principal database fails. The high availability mode is best used when automatic failover is required for a single database. Since this solution involves cross-node transactions, the principal server must wait briefly for responses from the mirror server, and therefore the performance of the principal server may be affected by the capability of the mirror server. Because a single database failure will cause an automatic failover, if you have multi-database applications, a different operating mode may be necessary.
High Protection SQL Server Mirroring
Pro
- Fully transactional safe data replication
- Supports replication between physical locations
- Full redundancy with only two nodes
Con
- Mirror database is not online and cannot be queried
- Performance hit due to two-step, cross-node commit process
- Must license SQL server on the principal and mirror servers
Description:
The High Protection operating mode also has full transactional safety, but has no witness server as part of the mirroring session. The principal database does not need to form a quorum to serve the database. In this mode only a manual failover is possible, because there is no witness to fill the tie-breaker role. An automatic failover is not possible, because if the principal server fails, the mirror server has no witness server with which to form a quorum.
High Performance SQL Server Mirroring
Pro
- Very low replication overhead means transactions execute quickly
- Supports replication between physical locations
- Full redundancy with only two nodes
Con
- Mirror database is not online and cannot be queried
- No guarantees that the mirror database is always 100% up-to-date
- Must license SQL server on the principal and mirror servers
Description:
In the High Performance operating mode, transactional safety is off, and the transfer of log records is asynchronous. The principal server does not wait for an acknowledgement from the mirror that all transaction log records have been recorded on the mirror. The mirror does its best to keep up with the principal, but it is not guaranteed at any point in time that all the most recent transactions from the principal will have been hardened in the mirror's transaction log. Since the safety is off, automatic failover is not possible, because of possible data loss.
High Availability Clustering
Pro
- Zero transaction overhead
- Very low cost since only one node must be licensed for SQL Server
Con
- Though the storage system can be made very redundant, it is still a single point-of-failure
- Can typically only provide redundancy for hardware at a single site
Description:
In Active/Passive clustering, SQL Server runs across two or more nodes, with only one node being active at any given moment. All nodes share a single storage system, typically a SAN. When the Active node has a failure one of the Passive nodes will assume control of the storage, take over the Active node’s IP address, and relaunch the SQL Server instance.
Every NeoSpire-managed Microsoft SQL solution includes:
- Initial system design and consultation by our MSSQL experts
- Affordable monthly licensing, if desired
- Server installation and hardening
- Advanced monitoring of SQL availability and performance
- Custom monitoring of your unique application attributes
- Proactive management and issue resolution
- Ongoing security management including:
- Patching
- User Management
- Database Permission Controls
- Audit Support
Backups are a critical part of any solution. NeoSpire has deployed a leading backup solution for all customers that provides incredible data integrity assurances. All MSSQL solutions backed up by NeoSpire have.
- Agent-based online SQL backups
- Minimum four weeks of historical data with secure offsite storage
- Daily differential and weekly full backups
- Transaction log backups every four hours
- Point-in-time restore capability
