emeadaxsupport: How to perform a data center change (change of the physical location) where a SQL server 2008 R 2 cluster installation and MS Dynamics AX 4.0 is involved?

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Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsupport/ar...-involved.aspx
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Basically you have 3 possibilities to proceed with the physical change of the data center locations:

1) You shut down the existing servers in the old data center in a controlled manner, transport these servers physically to the new data center and start them up there in a controlled manner again.

2) You leave the existing hardware in the old data center and configure new similar or even better hardware in the new data center. You create a backup of the data base or detach the database in the old data center. You move the data base backup or database itself only to the new data center and restore the backup or attach the database in the new data center.

3) You leave the existing hardware in the old data center and configure new similar or even better hardware in the new data center. You perform the database base change using SQL server tools in one of the following 3 ways:

a) You expand your already existing SQL server cluster with one or more new nodes in the new data center. You “provoke” a fail over manually to the new nodes in the new data center and by doing this the new nodes will become the active nodes.

b) You use SQL server feature Database Mirroring by setting up a connection from the old to the new data center

c) You use SQL server feature Log Shipping by setting up a connection from the old to the new data center

MS Dynamics AX-related hints: the latest SQL Server Version, which was supported in connection with MS Dynamics AX 4.0 is SQL Server 2008 R 2. Since MS Dynamics AX 4.0 is already out of MS product lifecycle (https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle) there is no support planned here for the latest SQL server version 2012, I’m afraid. MS recommends to migrate from MS Dynamics AX 4.0 to AX 2012 in order to gain from latest technology improvements and to have full support capabilities.

MS recommendations regarding data center change scenarios above:

If it is most important for you to have the least effort here from IT administration perspective then option 1) is the best choice if the old and the new data center are in the same Windows domain because the downtime is only to be expected for the physical transport of the hardware and after settling it there a direct controlled start up should be possible. From cost perspective you do not have to invest into new hardware here if the data center change happens for location change reasons only.

If the least available downtime is your most important goal here then you should go for option 3) a) because here the downtime is only to be expected for the timeframe it takes to process the manual fail over.

IMPORTANT:

You should at all costs test your final choice of the „data center change process“ intensively at least with a test database regardless of any specific option 1), 2) or 3) mentioned above before the real live change takes place!

Here are some more additional useful hints which could be interesting here for you:

If the domain will not change, and only the ip address + subnet is changing, you will only need to modify the ip address + subnet for the cluster and SQL:

Windows 2003:

230356 Changing the IP address of network adapters in cluster server

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;230356

258453 The Cluster Does Not Start After You Change the Subnet Mask of the Network Adapter

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;258453

SQL 2005:

244980 How to change the network IP addresses of SQL Server failover cluster instances

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;244980

How to: Change the IP Address of a SQL Server 2005 Failover Cluster

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...0(SQL.90).aspx

SQL 2008:

How to: Change the IP Address of a SQL Server Failover Cluster

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190460.aspx

For full domain change of SQL Server 2005/Windows 2003:

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From a windows perspective here are the steps to move the OS cluster :

269196 How to move a Windows Server cluster from one domain to another

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;269196

For SQL 2005, the recommended way of doing this is to uninstall and then reinstall SQL 2005 after the migration. If that is not possible, this article discusses a way to edit the registry

915846 Best practices that you can use to set up domain groups and solutions to problems that may occur when you set up a domain group when you install a SQL Server 2005 failover cluster

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;915846

For full domain change of SQL Server 2008/Windows 2008:

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Cluster rebuild + SQL Uninstall/Reinstall is required:

269196 How to move a Windows Server cluster from one domain to another

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;269196

910708 You must specify the domain groups for the clustered SQL Server services when you install a SQL Server failover cluster

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;910708




Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsupport/ar...-involved.aspx