This Morning I thought why not build a rocking Fast SQL Cluster in Azure. But the Next next Cluster operation is way to easy I decided to build this with the G series and with the Windows technical preview with the latest options. A G5 Server has 32 Cores and 448GB memory and only 6TB disk space. In this demo setup I used 3 G5 Servers and a little disk space
So I created a fresh new network for this.
and later I can create a hybrid S2S VPN to my other Clusters. See My other Blog post about VPN
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/how-to-setup-azure-vpn-for-site-to-site-cross-premises-or-create-a-virtual-network-for-point-to-site-vpn-azure-winserv/
I Create a DC that is holding my Service Accounts and I use Azure For the Cloud Witness
Check my blog on how to configure Cloud Witness
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/configuring-advanced-quorum-configuration-as-a-cloud-witness-windows-azure-files-cloud-azure-winserv-witness/
Doing a quick performance test on the G5 Machine. D and C drive
The same on a A1 machine D and C drive
The G5 CPU
As we Create the Cluster and I added some disk to the Cluster we have the following Configuration
With SQL 2014 I can use a CSV for the Database files So I created a CSV from 300GB this is more than enough to hold this test install and hold my two G5 Series SQL Server 2014 Ent. instances
To save Time and Costs I use the SQL ini file that I used in the first SQL Instance for the Second instance, This will not bring the fully automatic install as I don’t use the Service accounts But a Quick Next Next Finish will do the trick.
Using the CSV as Storage
On the Second instance I do a Install From ini file based setup. If you need more info on how to do this read my previous blog posts
Installing the SQL server is just as described in my blog post below
AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances SQL Server 2014
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/alwayson-failover-cluster-instances-sql-server-2014-in-part2-azure-winserv-sql-msteched/
Windows 2012R2 Failover Cluster With SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn Options
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/windows-2012r2-failover-cluster-with-sql-server-2014-alwayson-options-part1-cloud-azure-winserv-sql-msteched/
If you want to see the installation Steps I created a movie with about the same steps. the whole Process creating and install SQL in just 15 Minutes. not fully untended just for showing you what is possible.
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/windows-server-2012-r2-with-sql-server-2014-cluster-installation-in-less-than-15-minutes-winserv-rocks-movie/
Now that We have 2 SQL servers Running One instance on both nodes
The First node is holding my CSV volume ( more about this on another blog )
for demo I can’t fully load the SQL and this is only for showing that you can build a SQL Server 2014 Cluster Based on a CSV in Windows Azure.
And you can resize the G5 VM’s to a smaller size if needed.
But keep in mind the D drive is a temporary drive and will not hold data if the server is turned off !!
With the vNext there a re a lot off new options possible. For now I burned my Azure Credits See you next time.
Happy clustering
Robert Smit
@ClusterMVP
https://robertsmit.wordpress.com
Technorati Tags: Windows Azure,Azure File service,Windows,Server,Clustermvp,Blob,cloud witness
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Author: Robert Smit [MVP]
Robert Smit is Senior Technical Evangelist and is a current Microsoft MVP in Clustering as of 2009.
Robert has over 20 years experience in IT with experience in the educational, health-care and finance industries.
Robert’s past IT experience in the trenches of IT gives him the knowledge and insight that allows him to communicate effectively with IT professionals
who are trying to address real concerns around business continuity, disaster recovery and regulatory compliance issues. Robert holds the following certifications:
MCT - Microsoft Certified Trainer, MCTS - Windows Server Virtualization, MCSE, MCSA and MCPS. He is an active participant in the Microsoft newsgroup community and is currently focused on Hyper-V, Failover Clustering, SQL Server, Azure and all things related to Cloud Computing and Infrastructure Optimalization.
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Nice Guide!
How you create CSV volume in Azure?
Azure dont suport shared storage between Virtual Machines.
Best regards,
AC
Eh great Question keep watching my blog and it will be explained soon. My current beta TP is Expired and need to install the next version.
Hi. I have a primary site at East-US-2 region and my DR site is at azure paired zone in Central-US.
Now in East-US-2, G-series machines are available but no such machines available in Central-US zone. I really want to use G-series VM’s for SQL server as the workload is more memory intensive and less cpu intensive.
So can I create a cluster with 2 G-Series SQL nodes at primary site and 1 D-series SQL node at DR site? If it’s possible then will I face any problem because of this configuration in future?
Hi , yes this is possible as there is only DB replication with AlwaysOn. As the G series are more powerfull so Database is slower on the D series but still it works. This blog post was already an old one. So for now it is better to use a newer SQL version and for the vm series a M series is also powerfull.