Sql-server – Does SQL Server route connections to a secondary replica which has commit mode as synchronous in case of an AG with multiple secondary nodes

availability-groupshadrread-only-databasesql server

If I have an AG with 4 different nodes as below:

Primary Node
Secondary Node 1 – Asynchronous Commit – Read Only Yes
Secondary Node 2 – Synchronous Commit – Read Only No
Secondary Node 3 – Synchronous Commit – Read Only Yes

In this case, if a connection to secondary node is required from an application, will the SQL Server route it to Node 1 or Node 3 ? Node 2 is out of question because it's Read Only is set to NO, isn't it ?

Ideally it should be routed to Node 3 because it has synchronous commit and data will be more consistent with the primary. Is that's what will happen here?

Best Answer

It will depend on your routing list.

SQL Server 2104 and SQL 2012 read-only routing directed traffic to the first available replica in the routing list, unless it was not accessible, and then it would direct the connection to the next replica in the routing list. When you have multiple secondary replicas available for read, it is not possible to spread the read load across those replicas.

In SQL Server 2016 you can configure load-balancing across a set of read-only replicas.

Details Here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alwaysonpro/2016/05/02/sql-server-2016-alwayson-availability-group-enhancements-load-balance-read-only-routing/

Related Solutions

SQL Server – Does Synchronous-Commit Availability Mode Ensure Consistency Between Replicas?

SYNCHRONIZED state only ensures that the writes are hardened by the secondary (log written to disk). It says nothing about them being applied (data changed).

can I expect consistent results to be returned from both replicas, every time?

Yes. The reads are consistent, always. But keep in mind that in relational parlance consistency (ACID) has a different meaning from the distributed (CAP) consistency. You are not guaranteed to read the most recent consistent state. Particularly, you are not guaranteed to read your own committed writes. And the reads from each replica, while each being consistent, may not match.

Sql-server – ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly Traffic when no Readable Secondary Available

There are several steps to configuring a server to accept ReadOnly traffic. The following link walks you through it, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh710054.aspx ,but basically you need to configure each server in the AG and then set up the routing for each.

Here's the T-SQL involved:

ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1]
 MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER01' WITH 
(SECONDARY_ROLE (ALLOW_CONNECTIONS = READ_ONLY));
ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1]
 MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER01' WITH 
(SECONDARY_ROLE (READ_ONLY_ROUTING_URL = N'TCP://COMPUTER01.contoso.com:1433'));

ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1]
 MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER02' WITH 
(SECONDARY_ROLE (ALLOW_CONNECTIONS = READ_ONLY));
ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1]
 MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER02' WITH 
(SECONDARY_ROLE (READ_ONLY_ROUTING_URL = N'TCP://COMPUTER02.contoso.com:1433'));

ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1] 
MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER01' WITH 
(PRIMARY_ROLE (READ_ONLY_ROUTING_LIST=('COMPUTER02','COMPUTER01')));

ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP [AG1] 
MODIFY REPLICA ON
N'COMPUTER02' WITH 
(PRIMARY_ROLE (READ_ONLY_ROUTING_LIST=('COMPUTER01','COMPUTER02')));
GO

Sounds like you may be missing the configuration and/or routing information for the primary.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

SQL Server – Does Synchronous-Commit Availability Mode Ensure Consistency Between Replicas?

Sql-server – ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly Traffic when no Readable Secondary Available

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