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jacobtyge
Starting Member
1 Post |
 Posted - 2010-04-17 : 01:43:17
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| HiWe are building a central communication platform (CCP) that will be accessed by many external customers. The CCP will hold applications that rely on a SQL database, and I need to build a cluster that can handle at least 4 different SQL databases. The external customers access the CCP through a MPLS cloud that is provided by an ISP. In the firewall that protects the CCP, there is made a NATing, so the servers IP is hidden, and the NAT address is a RIPE IP, so that it is unique. Which is crucial with the amount of different customers. The customers will more or leass always reside on there own domain. That is pretty much the environment.The first cluster that was build was made with named DB instances, and it showed up to have some difficulties. some of the DB application are client server application, and when they were trying to communicate with the RIPE address they would make a netbios call. This call was not answered correctly. And that is obvious when you make a netbios call in one domain, and would like to receive responds from a domain that you have no trust with, and there are to independent firewalls in between (the customer also got a firewall).Another problem we encountered was that the client would access the cluster on the Virtual IP address, but the SQL cluster would respond from the physical servers IP address that was the least busy. The server OS was windows 2008. And the first customers firewall was an ISA firewall. Well - I want to build the following - And please tell me if it is possible.A windows cluster with an cluster instance for each database. Each DB will be assigned it's own IP address. each DB will be installed as default installation, and not named. Then the custers only need to specify the RIPE address, that will be NATed in the FW. Can you somehow in the cluster setup specify that answers should not come from the physical IP but from the Virtual IP. Is it a 2008 feature, that it will make the load balancing, and respond from the least busy, and can you disable that part, and keep on server as the primary, and the other as a slave/standby?Is it possible to build the cluster and DB in such a manner?"You don't just go to Hell and throw the peanuts" |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2010-04-17 : 13:29:42
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| You can only have one default installation of SQL Server on a cluster. The other three would be named. You do not need to use the named instance's name would connecting to it though. You can connect to it just like you connect to the default instance, you just need to specify the port number. Here's an example:VirtualName1 --port 30101VirtualName2\NamedInstance1 --port 30102VirtualName3\NamedInstance2 --port 30103VirtualName4\NamedInstance3 --port 30104For the default installation, you can connect via VirtualName1 or VirtualName1,30101. For the named instances, you would use VirtualNameN,3010M. And if you don't want to specify the port number in the connection, then you can setup an alias on the client machines. Aliases can be setup via SQL Server Configuration Manager (if the SQL client tools are installed there), via an ODBC test DSN, or via the registry. Do a search on my id in the forums and aliases. I go into great length on how to set these up. With an alias, you just connect via the AliasName and nothing else. The alias in the registry specifics the connection information such as VirtualName2,30102.SQL Server installations on a cluster only use the virtual IP. Windows clustering does not do any load balancing. Windows clustering is for high availability. What you have described is not possible for the above reasons.Tara KizerMicrosoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Serverhttp://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/Subscribe to my blog |
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SQL Cluster Design