3.4.3 MxDB for SQL Server Installation and Administration Guide

Introduction

Matrix DataBase Solution Pack for SQL Server™ (MxDB for SQL Server)

provides high availability for SQL Server databases located on PolyServe

Matrix Server cluster filesystems.

MxDB for SQL Server

MxDB for SQL Server uses Virtual SQL Servers to provide failover

support and high availability. A Virtual SQL Server “virtualizes” the

network name and IP address associated with a particular SQL

Server/Instance. That is, rather than using the network name and IP

address of an actual server, a Virtual SQL Server is created and assigned a

unique name/IP-address pair. Up to 16 SQL instances can be associated

with each Virtual SQL Server.

Clients access the databases associated with an instance via the Virtual

SQL Server name or IP address; they do not need to know which node is

running the SQL instance.

When you configure a Virtual SQL Server, you will need to specify a

primary node and one or more backup nodes. The SQL instances

associated with the Virtual SQL Server must be installed on all of these

nodes. The Virtual SQL Server is active on the primary node, and SQL

database requests are serviced from there. On failure, the ClusterPulse

process (provided with Matrix Server) will fail over, or migrate, the

Virtual SQL Server to one of the designated backup servers, where it will

continue to provide access to the same PSFS filesystem data under the

same name/IP-address pair.