Microsoft SQL Server 2008 High Availability by Hemantgiri S. Goswami details from flipkart

What you will learn from this book

•     Learn about the prerequisites for installing SQL Server HA
•     Understand the windows domain and various handshake methods
•     Understand SQL Server's authentication mechanism and SQL Server security
•     Configure and manage database mirroring for high availability
•     Handle cluster management and backup
•     Use log shipping to provide database-level redundancy by automatically backing up, copying, and restoring transaction logs on servers
•     Increase scalability, availability, and processing capacity by configuring applications to use peer-to-peer replication
•     Monitor the performance of SQL Server HA
•     Explore the concepts of SQL Server clustering, different types of SQL cluster

In Detail
Every business has it's mission critical applications and data. Therefore, it is very important to keep database servers up and running all the time – 24 X 7. There is a need to store and process terabytes of data to cater for business needs, and it is vital to make data highly available.

High availability is all about the site being accessible all the time. High availability solutions minimize the downtime for these mission critical applications.

Microsoft SQL Server is a powerful relational database engine, widely used to store and maintain data in Enterprises of various levels be they small, medium or large.

This book will teach you how best to use these readily-available options and save you time in making your websites highly available.

This Microsoft SQL Server 2008 High Availability book will take you through pre and post installation concepts and common issues you come across while working with SQL Server HA. It will teach you how these various HA solutions can be installed using GUI and the command line. It will also show you how to troubleshoot common issues you may encounter whilst installing or managing the HA option in your environment. It provides references to external links for more advanced learning on the topic.

This book starts with an introductory chapter into the windows domain, domain users and various handshake methods available with Windows server. It also offers information the different authentication methods available with SQL Server - giving you an insight into the importance of security. After you are through with the security aspects, your journey to installing SQL Server HA will start. It will cover the concepts of database mirroring, log shipping, clustering, and replication.

By the end of this book you will be confident enough to take up the challenge to install any of the SQL Server HA options.

A step-by-step guide to SQL Server HA for DBA aspirants, proficient developers and system administrators

Approach
With clear step-by-step instructions, various real world examples, and plenty of screenshots, this book provides all the support and guidance you will need as you begin to install various SQL Server HA options.

Who this book is for
If you are an SQL Server developer, or a system administrator, or even a novice DBA, then this book is for you.

It only requires you to have a basic understanding of how SQL Server works to get you through the installation of SQL Server HA.

About the Author
Hemantgiri S. Goswami is a SQL Server consultant based in Surat, India. He has been a Microsoft SQL Server MVP three years running; he also moderates multiple SQL Server community forums including http://www.sql-server-performance.com and http://www.sqlserver-qa.net. He actively participates and speaks at local user group events organized under the aegis of http://www.surat-user-group.org, DotNetChaps and CSI Surat chapters, of which he is a founding and active member. He regularly publishes article on his blog space http://www.sql-server-citation.com. He has recently taken up a new initiative - blogging about SQL in his native language Gujarat through his blog http://sqlservercitation-gujarati.blogspot.com

He has more than 11 years of experience in the IT industry, of which nine years have been as a hard core DBA focusing on High Availability area. During his career, he has worked with the top five IT giants of India. In addition to SQL Server, Hemantgiri also possesses excellent knowledge of Windows Server OS(s) and Networking.

In his free time, he prefers to watch cartoons, read and sometimes sketches.

You can reach him via his blog – http://www.sql-server-citation.com , twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ghemant or by writing to him at Hemantgiri [at] sql-server-citation.com

Table of Contents
Preface

Chapter 1: Understanding Windows Domains, Domain Users, and SQL Server Security

•     Windows domains and domain users
•     Understanding SQL Server Security
•     Windows authentication
•     What is clustering?
•     How clustering works
•     MSDTC
•     Types of clusters
•     Single-instance Cluster
•     Multi-instance Cluster
•     Multi-site Failover Cluster
•     Guest Failover Clustering
•     Components of clustering
•     Shared disk array
•     The Quorum
•     Public and Private Network
•     Summary

Chapter 2: Implementing Clustering

•     What is Hyper-V?
•     Installation prerequisites for SQL Server 2008 R2
•     Hardware requirements
•     Software requirements
•     Operating system requirements
•     Server role and feature
•     IP addresses
•     Network name
•     Shared disks
•     Installing a Single-instance Failover Cluster
•     Adding a node to an SQL Server failover cluster
•     Installing the SQL Server failover cluster using the command prompt
•     Installing SQL Server failover cluster using the Configuration file
•     Installing Multi-instance (Active/Active) Failover Cluster
•     Adding a node to a SQL Server failover cluster
•     Configuration
•     Write caching
•     File shares
•     Maximum memory size
•     Minimum memory size
•     Preferred owners
•     LooksAlive
•     IsAlive
•     Restart
•     Affect the Group
•     Dependencies
•     File share
•     Anti Virus tool
•     Summary

Chapter 3: Snapshot Replication

•     Components of the replication
•     Types of replication
•     Snapshot Replication
•     Transactional Replication
•     Merge Replication
•     Peer-to-Peer Replication
•     Replication topologies
•     How replication works
•     Prerequisites for Snapshot Replication
•     Installing
•     Configuring Distributor and Publisher
•     Creating publication
•     Creating subscription
•     Configuring Snapshot Replication
•     Snapshot Agent
•     Distribution Agent
•     Maintenance jobs
•     Agent history clean up: distribution
•     Distribution clean up: distribution
•     Expired subscription clean up
•     Reinitial...