Cluster Server 8.0 Implementation Guide for Microsoft SQL Server - Windows

To configure the application

1. Launch the vSphere Client and connect to the vCenter Server that manages the virtual machine. On the Inventory view of the vCenter Server, in the left pane, select the virtual machine where you want to configure application monitoring. Then, in the right pane, select the Veritas High Availability tab.
2. On the Veritas High Availability tab, click Configure Application for High Availability. This option is available only after a cluster has been configured. Unless you configure a cluster, you cannot configure an application for monitoring.
3. On the Welcome panel of the Veritas High Availability Configuration wizard, review the pre-requisites and then click Next.
4. On the Application Selection panel, select the application from the Supported Applications list and then click Next.

   Alternatively, you can use the Search box to find the application and then click Next.

   If you want to download any of the High Availability Agents, click the Download Application Agents (SORT) link to download the agents from the Veritas Operations Readiness Tools (SORT) site.

   https://sort.veritas.com/agents

5. On the Application Inputs panel, specify the fully qualified user name and the password for connecting to the SQL Server database. Make sure that the user has SQL Server logon permissions.
6. On the SQL Instance Selection panel, choose the SQL Server instances and any of the following associated components that you want to monitor, and then click Next.

   SQL Agent Service	Select this option to configure monitoring for SQL Server Agent service for the selected instance. You must select this for each selected SQL Server instance separately.
   Analysis Service	Select this option to configure monitoring for SQL Server Analysis service for the selected instance. You must select this for each selected SQL Server instance separately.
   FILESTREAM	Select this option to configure monitoring for FILESTREAM. You can select this option, if FILESTREAM is enabled on the selected instance.

7. To enable detail monitoring for the selected instances and associated services, select Configure detail monitoring and provide the following required details:

   • Enter a non-zero value in the Monitor after every ... cycles box. This value indicates the number of online monitor cycles that the agent must wait before performing detail monitoring.

     The numeric value specifies how often the monitoring check must run. 1 means, run a detail check every single monitor interval, 2 means run the detail check every second monitor interval. This interpretation may be extended to other values.

     Veritas recommends that you set this value between 1 and 12. The default value is 5.

   • Select one of the following modes for detail monitoring:

     • Database monitoring

       Select this mode to enable detail monitoring by connecting to the database and choosing the desired databases from the Databases list.

     • Script-based monitoring

       Select this mode to enable detail monitoring by using a user-defined SQL script.

       If you choose script-based monitoring, you must enter the following details:

       Script Path	Enter the script location on the virtual machine
       User Name	Enter the valid user name Note: The user account must have rights to run the script and execute the SQL commands specified in the script.
       Password	Enter the password for the user account specified in the User Name text box

   • If the detail monitoring fails, the SQL Server agent can fail over the service group to another node. If you want the agent to initiate the failover in such a scenario, make sure that the Restart the SQL instance if detail monitoring fails check box is checked.

8. On the Registry Replication Details panel, select a location from the Registry replication directory drop-down list to save the registry replication data.

   Veritas recommends that you store the registry replication data and the SQL Server application data at different locations.

9. On the Configuration Inputs panel, select the VCS cluster systems on which you want to configure the application for high availability and move them to the Application failover targets list. The local system is selected by default.

   Using the up-down arrow keys, you can define the priority order for the failover systems.

   For each system that you assign as a failover target, you must specify the domain user account details in the appropriate fields on the Edit System dialog box. The VCS agents use these details to perform domain operations (such as Active Directory updates).

10. On the Virtual Network Details panel, specify the virtual IP and the network details for the application to be configured and then click Next.

    To specify the virtual IP and network details, select the IP version and then specify the following details for each failover system:

    Note:

    You must select the same IP version as the one that was selected during the VCS cluster configuration.

    Virtual IP address	Specify a unique virtual IP address.
    Subnet mask	Specify the subnet mask to which the IP address belongs.
    Virtual name	Specify a virtual name.
    Network Adapter column	Select the network adapter that will host the virtual IP.

11. On the Storage HA Inputs panel, specify the ESX/ESXi hosts and the administrative user account details for each host, and then click Next.

    Note:

    This panel appears only if you have specified a registry replication directory, or multiple application failover targets, or both for the selected SQL Server application.

    To specify the ESX/ESXi hosts, click Add ESX/ESXi Host and on the Add ESX/ESXi Host dialogue box, specify the following details:

    ESX/ESXi hostname or IP address	Specify the target ESX hostname or IP address. The virtual machines will fail over on this ESX host during vMotion. The mount points configured on the ESX host where the application is currently running must be available on the target ESX host.
    User name	Specify a user account for the ESX host. The user account must have administrator privileges on the specified ESX host.
    Password	Specify the password for the user account provided in the User name text box.

    Note:

    By default, the wizard sets up a communication link with the ESX/ESXi server. You can modify the configuration to set up the communication link with vCenter Server instead. To set up a link with a vCenter Server, you must modify the ESXDetails attribute after this application monitoring configuration workflow is complete.

    See Modifying the ESXDetails attribute.

12. On the Configuration Summary panel, review the application configuration details.

    The wizard assigns a unique name to the application service group. Click Rename to rename the service group.

    Click Next to initiate the application monitoring configuration.

13. On the Implementation panel, the wizard performs the application configuration tasks.

    The wizard displays the status of each task. After all the tasks are complete, click Next.

    If the configuration tasks fail, click Diagnostic information to check the details of the failure. Rectify the cause of the failure, and run the wizard again to configure application monitoring.

14. On the Finish panel, click Finish to complete the wizard workflow. This configures the application for high availability on the selected VCS cluster systems.

    The Veritas High Availability view now displays the application status and its component dependency.

    If the application status shows as not running, click Start to start the configured components on the system.

    Note:

    Ensure that you start the application (bring the service group online) on the first system at least once. This is required to store the database related information and the SQL Server instances registry setting details in the VCS cluster configuration. When the application fails over to any other VCS cluster system, this information is applied to that system and the application is brought online on that system.