Sql-server – SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition Disaster Recovery Options

disaster recoverysql-server-2012standard-edition

Suggest me the best method for My DR plan. Currently we have set of databases (6) used for our application and we in the process of building DR and HA plan. As we are into small business we are using standard edition 2012 and we are unable to make use of AG feature.

Thanks for your help.

Best Answer

Could you please let me know the best option to proceed and least complexity to maintain

Logshipping is your best option for Disaster Recovery since you are on standard edition.

Make sure you test the disaster recovery - simulate it so that you are confident when a real disaster strikes.

Note: In my company, we use LogShipping as a primary DR solution involving 2500 databases globally and it works perfectly fine and fulfills our business continuity goal (it worked during Hurricane Sandy as well). We automate most of the things and test(simulate) every quarter per individual database and yearly the entire data center. THis gives us a huge confidence when doing an actual failover during a disaster.

Check out the things to keep in mind when going for Logshipping :

Log shipping is a low-cost (poor-man) solution that provides disaster recovery protection at the database level. A log shipping configuration includes one primary server and one or more secondary servers. A database is backed up and restored from the primary server to the secondary server. At regularly scheduled intervals, a transaction log backup and restore is performed at the primary and secondary server to keep the servers in sync.

Also, Kendra Little has an excellent post on Log Shipping Magic: Using A Differential Backup to Refresh a Delayed Secondary

Note: As per your question, it seems to me that you are mixing up HA and DR. They are different when it comes to RTO and RPO vs availability of your application.

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