SIMS/SQL Cluster

[Bob_the_Goon]

Hello,

 

Is anyone hosting their SIMS DBs in a SQL cluster? This isn't supported by Capita as such but I was just curious to see if anyone is doing this?

 

Cheers,

 

Paul

[localzuk]

There's not really any need with virtualisation where it is now. Just have a virtual server cluster, that way your VM can move between hosts should it need it. There's not a school big enough that it'd need SIMS to be load balanced either.

[jinnantonnixx]

There's nothing in principal to prevent SIMS databases operating on an SQL cluster, but I think the supporting systems and applications might cause problems.

 

I think (and I may be wrong or out of date here) but the Document Server organises its folder structure based on the Netbios name of the SQL server, not the (virtual) cluster name of the server cluster. My memory is vague, but I think it gets the servername by running an xp_cmdshell command shell script on the SQL server to get the computer name. This will return the live computer name, not the cluster virtual name. You can test this by using DNS aliases for your SQL server, and you'll probably find that the Docstorage folder structure takes the Netbios name of the SQL server no matter what the DNS alias is set to. This bit me a fair while ago, so it might have changed, but it's something to watch out for.

 

If this still stands, this alone is enough to prevent SIMS working on a cluster. At least that was the case when I considered it years ago.

 

Long story short, I think an SQL cluster for SIMS will be a grief-rich endeavour.

 

Of course, somebody might be successfully operating SIMS on an SQL cluster - if so please post.

Edited March 18, 2015 by jinnantonnixx

[RogerCorrigan]

I know of a school that managed to run SIMS on an SQL Cluster perfectly fine. However, they experienced issues with Discover and SOLUS 3 because of the NetBios names.