Failing over a SQL Server Availability Group

Availability Groups are a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution that provide an enterprise-level alternative to database mirroring. Availability Groups maximize the availability of a set of user databases using either clustered instances or standalone instances on a Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) cluster.

Availability Groups support a failover environment for a discrete set of user databases, known as availability databases, that fail over together. In the event of a failover, instead of transferring ownership of shared physical resources to another node, WSFC can reconfigure a secondary replica on another SQL Server instance to become the primary replica of the Availability Group.

Before you begin

• You must have a SQL Server Availability Group.

To fail over a SQL Server Availability Group

1. From the Management Console, navigate to the Availability Group on which you want to configure failover.
2. Select Management > Fail Over SQL Server Availability Group.

3. In the General page, populate the following fields, and click Next.

   Field	Description
   Domain	Displays the BMC Database Automation (BDA) domain for the Windows cluster hosting this Availability Group.
   Cluster	Displays the Windows cluster hosting this Availability Group.
   Availability Group Name	Displays the name of the Availability Group.
   Primary Instance	Displays the instance for the current primary replica for this Availability Group.
   Secondary Instances	(Required) Select the secondary replica that will become the new primary replica for the Availability Group. You must have the SQL Server Availability Group Force capability to select a secondary instance indicating data loss.
   Force Failover if Unsynchronized	(Displays only if you have the SQL Server Availability Group Force capability and you select an instance in the Secondary Instances field that indicates data loss) Select this check box to confirm failover with potential data loss. You cannot proceed with the wizard unless you select this check box.
   Template	(Optional) Select from the list of defined Remove Replica from Mssql Availability Group templates to automate input during the wizard data collection. If you select a template, you may click Skip Ahead to advance directly to the next step that requires input. Any steps that have been configured by the information in the template will not appear.

4. In the Custom Scripts Configuration page, select any pre-provisioning or post-provisioning scripts that you want to run as follows, and click Next.

   Section	Description
   Pre-Provisioning Script	(Optional) Select the scripts that you want to run before this event and click the right arrow to move them to the Selected list box. The scripts in Selected are run in the order listed. Use Move Up and Move Down to re-order the scripts when necessary. See also Managing pre-provisioning and post-provisioning script files.
   Post-Provisioning Script	(Optional) Select the scripts that you want to run after this event and click the right arrow to move them to the Selected list box. See also Managing pre-provisioning and post-provisioning script files.

5. In the Job Options page, specify any of the following Job options, and click Next.

   Type	Option	Description
   Notification Emails	Email List	(Optional) Click Add Email to add email addresses to the notification list.
   Job Administration	Cleanup Agent Logs	(Optional) Select to automatically remove logs that are generated by BMC Database Automation on the Agent after the Job is complete.

6. If the Change Control page displays, populate the following fields, and click Next.

   Section	Field	Description
   	Bypass Change Control	(Optional) Select to bypass using BMC Remedy ITSM to control the change process. Selecting this option removes the rest of the fields from this page.
   	Change Control Options	Select to determine whether to open a new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket, or to use an existing BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket to control the change process. Selecting Use Existing Change Ticket displays the fields in the Use Existing Change Ticket section on this page. Selecting Create New Change Ticket displays the fields in the Create New Change Ticket section on this page.
   Use Existing Change Ticket	ITSM Change ID	Specify the BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket number to associate with this change process.
   	ITSM Task ID	Specify the BMC Remedy ITSM task ID number to associate with this change process.
   Create New Change Ticket	Change Type	Assign the type of change for the new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket.
   	Change Impact	Assign the impact level of this change process for the new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket.
   	Change Urgency	Assign the urgency level for the new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket.
   	Change Risk-Level	Assign the risk level of this change process for the new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket.
   	Change Class	Assign the change class for the new BMC Remedy ITSM change ticket.
   	Change Summary	Type a summary of the change process.

   Note

   The Change Control page appears only when change control is configured for your environment. See Configuring change control.

7. In the Summary page, review the provisioning information.
   To make changes, do the following:
   1. Click Go to to return to the provisioning step that you want to edit.
   2. Make your changes.
   3. Click Save and Review to return to the Summary page.
8. Specify your verification preferences.
   For additional information, see Understanding pre-verification tests.
   • To continue with failing over the availability group after the pre-verification tests have been successfully run without manual intervention, select Automatically Continue If All Tests Succeed.

   • To fail over the availability group without having first run the pre-verification steps, select Skip Pre-Verification Tests.

     Note

     The Skip Pre-Verification Tests option should only be used when you are certain all tests can succeed. The option skips verification and advances directly to the actual provisioning activity.

9. Click Fail Over SQL Server Availability Group.
   A progress page appears followed by a success message upon completion. The new primary replica appears in the Contents page for this SQL Server Availability Group.

   Note

   Detailed current and historical information about this action can be viewed in the Jobs section of the Management Console. See Monitoring jobs and viewing job history.