Clustering servers

[joblack23]

I have a remote location with a domain controller 2008 running a SQL server for a small database. I will be opening another office and need access to this domain controller. However, I would prefer not to use remote access client such as Citrix or RDP. I would consider building a read only DC and replicate the servers. I was woundering if there are better alternatives such as Clustering, or replications across the network. My concern is to be able to have the same data in both locations. I don't need to be replicated to the minute but days is not optional.

Thanks for anyone's help.

 

[58sniper]

You don't mention how big the new office is going to be, so a RODC may or may not be the best fit. DFS would certainly replicate file data.

But it's not recommended to run apps on a domain controller. This includes SQL. You'd be better off building a Hyper-V server, and having DC and SQL guests on it.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[joblack23]

Pat,

Thanks for your reply. The new office would be small (perhaps 10 users the most). I figure RODC will alow me to logon fast but I am not sure if it will replicate SQL. Idealy I would like to have the RODC and just replicated the database. I don't need fast replication but perhaps 1-2 hours would be ideal.

Agan, very much thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[joblack23]

Pat,

One other thing i failed to mentioned, true not recomended but the office again is small (5 users) it would be a waist to build multiple servers or even virtualized server.

Thanks much.

Jo

 

[kmcferrin]

The amount of effort required to buy multiple servers would probably be a waste with only 10 users, but the amount of effort required to install Hyper-V on a physical server and then run two virtual instances (one for the DC and one for SQL) wouldn't be that bad.

How fast is your WAN link? Do you even need a server (or at least a DC) at that new location?

If you want to replicate your SQL database then you'll have to do that through SQL, which means two full databases. You'll also be looking at a fairly complicated setup because the databases must be kept in sync in near real time, otherwise you'll get into situations where a user at each site updates the same record before changes have replicated.

My recommendation:

Main site - 1 DC and 1 SQL server (either two systems or two virtual machines)
Secondary site - 1 DC (if necessary), and applications accessed over the WAN.

This is going to depend upon how the application that uses the database utilizes the SQL server. If it has a web front end then even a T1/E1 would be sufficient. If it opens and maintains a persistent connection then you may have some performance issues. Even if you don't want to get into a Citrix or RDS scenario, it may be required for your particular situation (and both work well in low bandwidth scenarios). Unfortunately there isn't enough information in your post to do more than offer general suggestions.

As far as clustering goes, that is generally used for failover/HA purposes only.

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