pvs sql mirroring – Carl Webster https://www.carlwebster.com The Accidental Citrix Admin - The site for those who find themselves supporting Citrix involuntarily or accidentally Mon, 06 Sep 2021 19:32:41 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 42228915 Changing a Production Provisioning Services SQL Database to Use Mirroring https://www.carlwebster.com/changing-a-production-provisioning-services-sql-database-to-use-mirroring/ https://www.carlwebster.com/changing-a-production-provisioning-services-sql-database-to-use-mirroring/#comments Sun, 09 Feb 2014 12:45:28 +0000 https://www.carlwebster.com/?p=6852 I received an email from a reader asking me if I had ever changed a production Provisioning Services (PVS) database from a single database to use mirroring. I had not, so I thought this was a good time to try it out and document the process.

My lab runs two PVS 7.1 servers on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and three Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 servers also running on Server 2012 R2.

Note: The Witness SQL server can run SQL Server Express, but I already had full SQL Server installed on three servers, so I decided to use full SQL Server and not SQL Server Express for the Witness server.

Because I am using SQL Server 2012 SP1, I had to download the Native Client for SQL Server 2012 SP1 (ENU\x64\sqlncli.msi) and install it on all PVS servers.

I have a service account created in Active Directory for the PVS database.

Figure 1
Figure 1

I also created a security group named SQLServers that has all three SQL Servers as members.  This security group will be used when mirroring is configured later using a wizard in SQL Server.

Figure 2
Figure 2

The members of the SQLServers security group.

Figure 3
Figure 3

The PVS Configuration Wizard configured the PVS database for the service account.

Figure 4
Figure 4

The Farm properties, as shown in the PVS console, show I am not configured for database failover.

Figure 5
Figure 5

The first thing that must be done is to change the database’s Recovery model that PVS created automatically.  PVS created the database using the Simple Recovery model, but mirroring requires the Full Recovery model.  Please see Prerequisites, Restrictions, and Recommendations for Database Mirroring.

“The database must use the full recovery model. The simple and bulk-logged recovery models do not support database mirroring. Therefore, bulk operations are always fully logged for a mirrored database.”

On the SQL Server with the PVS database, open the SQL Server Management Studio, expand Databases, right-click the PVS database, click Properties and click Options in the left pane.

Figure 6
Figure 6

Change the Recovery model to Full and click OK.

Figure 7
Figure 7

The next step is to do two backups of the PVS database.  One for the database and one for the transaction logs.

Still in the Databases node of the SQL Server Management Studio, right-click the PVS database, click Tasks and click Back Up.

Figure 8
Figure 8

Leave the Backup type as Full and click OK.

Figure 9
Figure 9

Click OK.

Figure 10
Figure 10

Repeat the process for the second backup.  Right-click the PVS database, click Tasks, and click Back Up.

Figure 11
Figure 11

Click OK.

Figure 12
Figure 12

Change the Backup type to Transaction Log and click OK.

Figure 13
Figure 13

Click OK.

Figure 14
Figure 14

The backup on the primary SQL server needs to be copied to the same location on the mirror SQL server.  For my lab, XD71SQL1 is the primary, and XD71SQL2 is the mirror.

What I did is on SQL1 open up Windows Explorer to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Backup and also open up an Explorer window to \xd71sql2\c$\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Backup.  I then copied and pasted the backup file from SQL1 to SQL2.

Figure 15
Figure 15

Exit both explorer windows.

Either go to SQL2 or add SQL2 to the SQL Server Management Studio on SQL1 (which is what I did).

Note: Please make sure your SQL Servers are running the same version, or you will run into issues.  Don’t ask me how I found that out. 🙂

Figure 16
Figure 16

For the mirror server connection (SQL2 for me), right-click Databases and click Restore Database.

Figure 17
Figure 17

Change Source to Device and click the browse button.

Figure 18
Figure 18

Browse to the backup file copied from the primary SQL server, click on the backup file and click OK.

Figure 19
Figure 19

Click OK.

Figure 20
Figure 20

Make sure the Database is your PVS database and both Backup sets to restore are selected.  DO NOT click OK at this time.

Figure 21
Figure 21

Click Options in the left pane, change the Recovery state to RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY, and click OK.

Figure 22
Figure 22

Click OK.

Figure 23
Figure 23

Expand Databases on the mirror server.  The PVS database should say “(Restoring…)“.

Figure 24
Figure 24

On the principal server, expand Databases, right-click the PVS database, click Tasks and click Mirror.

Figure 25
Figure 25

Click Configure Security.

Figure 26
Figure 26

Click Next.

Figure 27
Figure 27

Verify Yes is selected and click Next.

Figure 28
Figure 28

Verify Witness server instance is selected and click Next.

Figure 29
Figure 29

Click Next

Figure 30
Figure 30

Select the mirror server from the Mirror server instance dropdown and click Connect.

Figure 31
Figure 31

Click Connect to authenticate and connect to the mirror server.

Figure 32
Figure 32

Click Next.

Figure 33
Figure 33

Select the witness server from the Witness server instance dropdown and click Connect.

Figure 34
Figure 34

Click Connect to authenticate and connect to the witness server.

Figure 35
Figure 35

Click Next.

Figure 36
Figure 36

Enter the SQLServers security account for all three instances and click Next.

Figure 37
Figure 37

Click Finish.

Figure 38
Figure 38

If all Action columns have a status of success, click Close.  Otherwise, view the report generated, resolve the issues reported, and rerun the Configure Security wizard.

Figure 39
Figure 39

Click Start Mirroring (and pray that everything works).

Figure 40
Figure 40

WHEW, it worked.  Click OK.

Figure 41
Figure 41

In the SQL Server Management Studio, refresh the primary and mirror servers.  Expand Databases on both servers.  The principal server should show the PVS database as (Principal, Synchronized), and the mirror server should show the PVS database as (Mirror, Synchronized / Restoring…).

Figure 42
Figure 42

Now the PVS servers need to be reconfigured.

On each PVS server, run the Provisioning Services Configuration Wizard.

Click Next.

Figure 43
Figure 43

Select the option appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 44
Figure 44

Select the option appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 45
Figure 45

Select Join existing farm and click Next.

Figure 46
Figure 46

Enter the principal and mirror SQL server names and click Next.

Figure 47
Figure 47

Select your PVS Farm and click Next.

Figure 48
Figure 48

Select your Site option and click Next.

Figure 49
Figure 49

Select your Store option and click Next.

Figure 50
Figure 50

Enter the credentials for your environment and click Next.

Figure 51
Figure 51

Select the password option appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 52
Figure 52

Select the options and ports appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 53
Figure 53

Select the option appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 54
Figure 54

Select the settings appropriate for your environment and click Next.

Figure 55
Figure 55

Click Finish.

Figure 56
Figure 56

Click Done.  If there are errors, view the log file generated, resolve any errors and rerun the Configuration Wizard.

Figure 57
Figure 57

Repeat this process for any other PVS servers.

Open the PVS Console, right-click the Farm, click Properties and click the Status tab.  The status should now show the failover partner configured.

Figure 58
Figure 58

Time to test mirror failover to ensure the PVS console still works and changes can be made to the PVS Farm.

Go back to the SQL Server Management Studio.  On the principal server, expand Databases, right-click the PVS database, click Tasks and click Mirror.

Figure 59
Figure 59

Click the Failover button.

Figure 60
Figure 60

Click Yes.

Figure 61
Figure 61

Refresh both the principal and mirror servers, expand Databases and look at the database status.

The principal server now shows (Mirror, Synchronized / Restoring…) and the mirror server shows (Principal, Synchronized).

Figure 62
Figure 62

Now go to the PVS Console and test making a small change.  For me, I am going to change a target device to add a description.  This will test whether a change can be saved to the SQL database.

Target device before.

Figure 63
Figure 63

Target device after.

Figure 64
Figure 64

Now go to another PVS server, open the PVS console and see if the change made is seen on that server.

And the change is there.  We know the SQL Database mirroring and failover are working.

Figure 65
Figure 65

Go back to the SQL Server Management Studio, click on the mirror server’s PVS database, and failover the database back to the principal server.

I hope this article helps you understand the mirror setup process necessary to implement SQL mirroring with failover for PVS.

Thanks

Webster

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