Designing high availability database solutions using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (MOC 2788)

Course overview

This 3-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to design high availability database solutions using Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The course focuses on teaching experienced database administrators working in enterprise environments to design database solutions that meet the availability needs of their organization. It emphasizes that students should think broadly about high availability, which includes thinking about the database itself and about their entire environment, including business needs; regulatory requirements; and network, systems, and database considerations during design. Students will also learn how to document and test the high availability database solution.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, students must:

• Have a basic understanding of network architecture. For example, what can fail in a network, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), differing performance characteristics of network components, etc.
• Understand the tradeoffs among the different redundant storage types. For example, what RAID levels mean, how it differs from a SAN, etc.
• Understand how replication works and how replication is implemented
• Be familiar with reading user requirements and business-need documents. For example, development project vision or mission statements or business analysis reports
• Have monitoring and troubleshooting skills
• Have knowledge of the operating system and platform. Specifically, must understand how hardware can fail, how the operating system integrates with the database, what the platform or operating system can do, and how the interaction between the operating system and the database works
• Have knowledge of application architecture. Specifically, must understand how applications identify servers to connect to, how applications can be designed in three layers, what applications can do, the interactions between applications and the database, interactions between the database and the platform or operating system

Know how to use: 

• A monitoring tool
• Microsoft Visio (to create infrastructure diagrams)
• Be familiar with SQL Server 2005 features, tools, and technologies
• Have a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 credential - or equivalent experience

It is recommended, but not required, that students have completed: 

• Writing Queries Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Transact-SQL (MOC 2778)
• Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database (HC602S)
• Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database (HC595S)

Audience

• This course is intended for current professional database administrators who have three or more years of on-the-job experience administering SQL Server database solutions in an enterprise environment

Next steps

• No Microsoft Certified Professional exams are associated with this course currently

Course outline

Module 1: Selecting the Appropriate High-availability Solution 

• Identifying High-availability Requirements and Constraints
• Analyzing High-availability Requirements and Constraints
• Determining Appropriate High-availability Solutions

Module 2: Designing a Clustering Solution 

• Designing the Platform for Clustering
• Designing the SQL Server Cluster Implementation
• Designing Recovery Strategies and Test Plans for Database Clustering
• Migrating and Upgrading SQL Server Clusters
• Designing an Operations Plan for Clustering

Module 3: Designing a Highly Available Database Storage Solution

• Determining Storage Requirements for SQL Server Databases
• Determining Storage Requirements for SQL Server Components and Files
• Designing Storage Solutions for SQL Server Databases
• Designing a Backup and Restore Strategy

Module 4: Designing a Log Shipping Solution 

• Introduction to Designing a Log Shipping Solution
• Designing Log Shipping Server Roles and Topology
• Designing a Log Shipping Upgrade Strategy
• Designing an Operations Plan for Log Shipping

Module 5: Designing a Database Mirroring Solution 

• Introduction to Designing a Database Mirroring Solution
• Designing Database Roles and Topology for Database Mirroring
• Converting High-availability Solutions to Database Mirroring
• Designing an Operations Plan for Database Mirroring

Module 6: Designing a Highly Available Solution Based on Replication 

• Introduction to Designing a Replication Solution
• Designing a Replication Solution
• Designing a Replication Upgrade Strategy
• Designing an Operations Plan for Replication