Question:
I want to set up a hot backup between two SQL servers on two different NT machines. In other words, if one of these servers goes down I want the second server to continue to work (transparently).
If this is possible, how do I change my client applications to work with this scenario?
Answer:
Yes it is possible, but what happens to your client depends on how you accomplish it. You can do standby servers that receive hot backups from production, do clustering, or roll your own.
The transfer from server to server is seamless with clustering and log shipping because the application doesn’t know that the server has changed. However, I have seen “roll your own” standby servers that require DBA intervention to bring them up, so that the change in server name clobbers the app’s data source.
