DB mirroring - Manual failover with witness

Question

Hi,

Scenario: Server 1 : Principal Server 2 : Mirror Server 3 : Witness

Mode: High-Performance (synchronous)

As I understand, witness is used for automatic failover. However, in our scenario we do not want that to happen (due to some network restrictions)

If witness is installed, both automatic failover is possible (initiated by witness itself) and manual failover (done from principal/mirror using SSMS or T-SQL). Is there a way to do ONLY manual failover using witness? i.e. Can we prevent automatic failover to happen even when witness is configured? According to me, this is not possible.

Can someone please help clarify this?

Thanks, Regards, Mandar

0

Hi, Scenario: Server 1 : Principal Server 2 : Mirror Server 3 : Witness Mode: High-Performance (synchronous) Qs. 1 - As I understand, witness is used for automatic failover. However, in our scenario we do not want that to happen (due to some network restrictions) If witness is installed, both automatic failover is possible (initiated by witness itself) and manual failover (done from principal/mirror using SSMS or T-SQL). Is there a way to do ONLY manual failover using witness? i.e. Can we prevent automatic failover to happen even when witness is configured? According to me, this is not possible. Can someone please help clarify this? Thanks, Regards, Mandar

Answer 1

you need to turn off witness for the same.

how to turn off witness

If you do not want Automatic fail over, it does not mean to go with a witness as you need to pay a bit with this feature.

Answer 2

As Lathess said, you don't have to use witness server if you really don't want to do automatic failover. You can use Mirroring Monitor to help you monitor you mirroring condition. You can find the detail below :

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365786.aspx

Answer 3

If you dont want automatic failover why waste one server making it as witness.YOu can turn it off.Just refer to below link for removing witness

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366340(v=sql.105).aspx

PS:If you switch from high-safety mode with automatic failover to high-performance mode, the Witness field is automatically cleared.

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Answer 4

Hi Latheesh,

Thanks.

So, this confirms my understanding, right?

Is there a way to do ONLY manual failover using witness? i.e. Can we prevent automatic failover to happen even when witness is configured? According to me, this is not possible.

Regards,
Mandar

Answer 5

Yes, thats correct, you need to turn off the witness.