Citrix Provisioning

Database mirroring

In order to provide a highly available configuration, if you mirror a MS SQL database and the primary version becomes unavailable, Provisioning Services supports the mirrored version. This results in improved overall availability of Provisioning Services.

Database mirroring can be implemented in a new or existing farm and requires the following high-level tasks:

  • Creating the Provisioning Services MS SQL primary database (created when the Installation Wizard is run on the server) Note: For database mirroring to function, the recovery model must be set to Full.
  • Identifying the primary database server and instance (identified when the Configuration Wizard is run).
  • Identifying an existing MS SQL failover database server (identified, not created, when the Configuration Wizard is run).
  • Configuring mirroring between the primary and failover database servers (configured using MS SQL database server tools)

Citrix recommends that you start the failover server before enabling database mirroring in the farm. For information, see Windows Server Failover Clustering with SQL Server.

Note: The procedures that follow are only intended to call out the steps that are applicable to database mirroring when running the Configuration Wizard.

Note: Run the Configuration Wizard to specify the new failover server so that the status of the Provisioning Service’s farm correctly reports the new settings. After re-running the wizard, some services, including the stream service, restart so that the farm has the new failover server settings specified with the wizard was run.

Enabling Mirroring when Configuring a New Farm

To enable mirroring:

  1. Start the Configuration Wizard on a server that will be in the new farm.
  2. While running the wizard, when the Farm Configuration page displays, select the Create Farm radio button to create a new farm, then click Next.
  3. Type or use the Browse button to identify the primary database server and instance names. Optionally, enter a TCP port number to use to communicate with this database server.
  4. Enable the Specify database mirror failover partner option.
  5. Type or use the Browse button to identify the failover database server and instance names. Optionally, enter a TCP port number to use to communicate with this server.
  6. Click Next. If the failover database has already been configured and it is up and running, Provisioning Services should be able to connect to it. If the failover database server has not yet been created or is not running, an error message may display indicating a failure to connect. In this case, when prompted, click Yes to continue (the failover database can be created and configured after the new farm is created).
  7. On the New Farm page, enter a name for the new database on the primary database server, then complete any additional requested information.
  8. Click Next.
  9. Complete the remaining wizard pages.

Enabling Mirroring Within an Existing Farm

To enable mirroring within an existing farm:

  1. Confirm that the primary and failover database servers are up and running.
  2. Using MS SQL server tools, mirror the Provisioning Services database to a database on the failover database server.
  3. Run the Configuration Wizard on each server.
  4. Identify the farm by choosing either the Farm is already configured or the Join exisiting farm option on the Farm Configuration page.
  5. On the Database Server page, select the primary and failover database servers and instance names, then enable the database mirror failover feature.
  6. Complete the remaining wizard pages.
Database mirroring