From *-SqlHadrService to *-SqlAlwaysOn

If you’ve been playing with SQL Server “Denali” AlwaysOn, you probably have seen the new PowerShell cmdlets for managing the new AlwaysOn feature. However, as SQL Server 2012 RC0 has been made available for download, you need to watch out for these “breaking changes” for AlwaysOn (I call them breaking changes because if you are using PowerShell scripts to automate AlwaysOn configuration, your scripts would no longer work.)

With SQL Server “Denali” CTP3, you may have used cmdlets like *-SqlHadrService to enable the AlwaysOn features across all instances that you join in your availability group.

Starting with SQL Server 2012 RC0, these have now been converted to *-SqlAlwaysOn.

So be sure to update those PowerShell scripts before you run them for testing to make sure you don’t waste your time trying to figure out what went wrong. And if you haven’t downloaded SQL Server 2012 RC0 yet, make sure you do so and get your hands dirty trying out the latest bits.

And since we’re already on the topic of SQL Server 2012, you also might want to catch my webcast on AlwaysOn Availability Groups on 30-Nov-2011. You can register for the webcast thru this URL.

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Building a Scale-Out SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Farm Whitepaper Now Available

Back in 2009, I wrote a 4-part series article on installing SQL Server 2008 Failover Cluster on Windows Server 2008 and, for the past two years, has been on the Top Ten Tips. I think one of the reason is because of the fact that we humans learn easily with the use of visuals (the articles are packed with screenshots and explanations). And since the internet has provided us with the opportunity to explore different types of media – graphics, videos, animations, etc. – our demand for these different types of media has increased with our need for continuous learning.

Last year, I was searching for official documentation on building a scale-out SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services farm from both the Microsoft TechNet and MSDN sites. However, the amount of documentation and the way they were written were too much for me. I guess that’s because they were written for a more highly technical and advanced audience. In more cases than not, I’ve been frustrated when I can’t even understand the jargon used in the documentation. And I’m guessing I’m not alone. More and more IT professionals want to try out new stuff but are taken aback by the complexity of the documentation available out there. And, so, with the same motivation behind the SQL Server 2008 Failover Cluster series of articles, I wrote a document on building a scale-out SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services farm. I thought, since I’ve been doing it or SharePoint, why not do it for Reporting Services. This was the basis of the five-part series article made available on MSSQLTips.com.

You can download the whitepaper from here. I would, however, request that you’d fill in your information here for my reference and feedback. Print out as many copies as you like, share it with your friends who you think will benefit from it or send them the PDF version. If you would be using this document for purposes other than personal – presentations, blog posts, articles, etc., please provide proper attribution to the original source.

I definitely would love to hear from you as this helps me improve my work.

Watch Out for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Webcast

My friends at MSSQLTips.com asked me to do a webcast on SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups. You’ve probably noticed that I have not been writing anything about SQL Server 2012 (formerly “Denali”) from both the articles that I’ve been writing and the previous blog posts as compared to when SQL Server 2008 was being released. That’s just my preference specifically because of all the stuff that I can’t talk about back then. Well, now that it is officially out in the public with the new name, I guess I no longer have to worry about mentioning anything that isn’t publicly available.

Being a high availability/disaster recovery (HA/DR) guy, AlwaysOn is one of the features that I like about SQL Server 2012. This provides organizations with more options to consider when implementing an HA/DR solution.  Two things that are being introduced here are AlwaysOn Availability Groups and AlwaysOn Failover Clustering.

On the 30th of November 2011 (3PM EDT), join me and the guys from Fusion-IO and MSSQLTips.com as we explore this new feature in SQL Server 2012 called AlwaysOn Availability Groups. To register for this webcast, simply click on this link. If you have questions about AlwaysOn Availability Groups  even before the webcast, you can post them here so we can discuss it further. I will try my very best to make sure that your question be mentioned during the webcast