log shipping between sql 2005 clusters

hi

I am working for a small govt dept.We are planning to implement sql 2005.

We will be having sql 2005 instance in active/passive cluster mode

We will also have a standby sql server 2005 in active/passive cluster mode.

i need to know how to configure log shipping between my primary and secondary?

Is logshipping the best option?

Thanks

Is logshipping the best option for what? Logshipping is a fine technology but there are other ways to get data to a secondary server. You can use database mirroring in SQL Server 2005. For failover purposes this is a great option. You can also use database snapshots on the same server for various reasons to. Logshipping is perfectly viable too. What are you trying to accomplish? Having redundancy outside of the cluster? Read Only reporting copy of data?

Having that info can help us help you make your choice. I would say look up in Books Online Logshipping, Database Snapshots and Database Mirroring.

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Thank you very much for the reply.

I need to have an exact replica of the live enviornment (production cluster) to be switched to (standby cluster) in case of any probs to the primary. We also do switching between primary and standby every week. Basically the standby is like having a disaster recovery site. Its having Redundancy outside the cluster.

Please suggest....

Thanks in advance

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Options are

Database Mirroring

Can be operated in Synchronous mode which means your standby will be an exact replica of your primary database. Switching between the two is easy.

However it doesn't support replication and in synchronous mode the data has to be written to the standby and so may impact performance of your app if your network connection isn't great.

You can work in Asynchronous mode in which case the data is written to the standby at some point after the application has finished the transaction, i.e. no impact on the application. However in this mode you may loose data if your primary goes down and the transaction hasn't made it to the standby.

Database Mirroing has automatic failover in the event of a failure (when used with a witness server)

Log Shipping

Very much like asynchronous mirroring however it supports multiple targets i.e. you could have 2 standby servers, you can't do that with mirroring. Also the mechanism for applying the logs is via a copy and restore model which is slightly different to mirroring.

Replication

Much more complicated than the two above but allows for your production to be in read/write mode (although changes are not replicated back to the primary). This is a great option for maintaining a reporting server as you can have different indexes on your reporting database.

Personally if your two clusters are connected by a highspeed network (Gb/s) I would go for synchronous mirroring.

More details can be found here

ms-help://MS.VSCC.v80/MS.VSIPCC.v80/MS.SQLSVR.v9.en/udb9/html/b2eda634-0f8e-4703-801b-7ba895544ff5.htm in BOL under the heading "Configuring for high availability."

Log Shipping between 2 Clusters

Hi
I'm trying to setup log shipping between two 2-node Active/Passive clusters and I keep getting an error "Unable to copy the initialization file to the secondary server".
I've search KB, to find an article KB/811890, but both clusters are in the same domain, and thus this article shouldn't apply. However, I'll try anything, so I have re-registered the second (log ship recipient) cluster as per the recommendations (SERVERN
AME.DOMAIN), but still get the same message.
I know its probably me that doing something wrong, but I'm stuck at what.
I have tried registering the instances in the following ways.
- Using the Cluster name (as opened within Cluster Administrator)
- Using the Virtual Server Name (as provided within the SQL Install)
- Using the Cluster IP Address
- Using the Virtual SQL Server IP Address
In all cases, I either get the same error, or don't get that far.
Can you please assist?
Thanks, in advance for your assistance.
Bev
Try the following to see if it helps
1)Run the stored procs (http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=sql2k) to clean up log shipping.
2)Verify that the SQL Server and SQL Server Agent services on primary and secondary SQL Servers are running under a domain account
3)Verify with your NT Administrator that there is a two way trust between the domains.
4)Log on to primary server using the domain account used to start SQL Server services on primary server.
a)Open Query Analyzer and use xp_cmdshell command to copy a file (any file will do) from the share on primary server (i.e. the share on primary server where you
want the transaction log backups to be stored) to the share on the secondary server. If you get error like access denied then we will need to fix this first.
b)Open Enterprise Manager and verify that you can register the primary and secondary SQL Servers.
c)Verify that the database you want to use for log shipping does not have SIMPLE Recovery model.
d)Verify that that the domain account that is used to start SQL Server services has access permission to the database that you want to use for log shipping.
e)Configure Log Shipping.
Best Regards,
Uttam Parui
Microsoft Corporation
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Log Shipping and C;ustering

Can you Implement Log Shipping between geographically dispersed clusters.
The main aim is to provide DR for 2 clusters to a single cluster located in
a seperate Datacenter.
Any input will be appreciated.
Yes. The two technologies are not mutually exclusive. Geographic
separation is not an issue with log shipping. You may find it easier to
implement a third party or home grown log shipping solution. The
implementation provided by Microsoft is good, but it may not offer all the
options you need.
Geoff N. Hiten
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Senior Database Administrator
Careerbuilder.com
I support the Professional Association for SQL Server
www.sqlpass.org
"Adrian56" <Adrian56@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:936B33BA-7C0B-4BF5-9C7F-C3DE24424809@.microsoft.com...
> Can you Implement Log Shipping between geographically dispersed clusters.
> The main aim is to provide DR for 2 clusters to a single cluster located
in
> a seperate Datacenter.
> Any input will be appreciated.