22-25 April 2026

SQL Server Clustering Basics for the DBA

2016

TL; DR

Windows failover clustering is the foundation for clustered instances and availability groups. A successful DBA needs to understand the underlying Windows portion of clustering. This session will show what you need to know

Session Details

While you can see how to run through Setup to deploy a clustered instance of SQL Server (FCI) or an availability group (AG) in other places, what ties them together is the underlying Windows failover cluster (WSFC). Anyone who deploys FCIs or AGs needs a solid foundation of the entire clustering stack to truly be able to understand and have success with implementations. This session will demystify what lies underneath SQL Server from a DBA point of view.

3 things you'll get out of this session

Speakers

Allan Hirt

sqlha.com/blog

Allan Hirt's previous sessions

Business Continuity for Hybrid and Cloud Native SQL Server Deployments
With more and more deployments of SQL Server becoming hybrid or cloud native, how do you need to think about availability? This session will give you the foundation on how to approach availability in the new world.
 
Modern Infrastructure Fundamentals for SQL Server
Even in a cloud provider or virtualized, you still need to worry about the infrastructure supporting SQL Server. This session will cover what that means in the modern world.
 
Dealing with Bad Networks - The Availability Conundrum
Are you trying to increase uptime locally or for disaster recovery but your network is terrible? Join the club. This session will discuss different techniques, their pros and cons, as well as considerations for availability when your network is flaky at best.
 
A Distributed Availability Groups Primer
A distributed availability group is not your mother's availability group. Want to know more? Attend this session.
 
Common Troubleshooting Techniques for AGs and FCIs
Learn how to troubleshoot AGs ad FCIs.
 
Storage Spaces Direct and Storage Replica for FCIs
Learn how to plan and implement storage spaces direct and storage replica for FCIs.
 
Top 10 Clustering Dos and Dont's
Clustered instances (FCIs) and availability groups (AGs) can still be the source of pain and confusion for many. Learn from one of the world's experts on clustering SQL Server about some of the most important considerations to clustering success.
 
Clustering SQL Server: What Does It Mean In 2015?
Clustering no longer means just installing a clustered instance of SQL Server (FCI). Availability groups also are clustered. This session will demystify clustering as it relates to SQL Server.
 
SQL Server Storage vNext: Welcome to the Future
The way our data will be stored is changing and it's all about your network. Come find out why CSVs, SMB, Windows Scale Out File Servers, fast networks, and maybe even the cloud are in your future.
 
Patch Management Strategies for SQL Server Deployments
Patching is often the cause of most of our downtime be it hardware, Windows, or SQL Server. This session will guide you around pitfalls to increase your uptime and reliability while managing your downtime related to patching and updating
 
A Preview of High Availability in SQL Server 2012
Mission critical is a major focus of SQL Server 2012. There are quite a few changes in this release to ensure that you maximize your uptime and reliability when it comes to SQL Server. This session will start preparing you for what is coming.
 
Multi-Site Failover Cluster With SQL 2008 and Denali
Planning a failover clustering implementation in a single data center is fairly straightforward, but what happens when you want to span data centers? Come and find out how to plan a multi-site failover cluster.
 
So Many High Availability Options, So Little Time
This session will compare and contrast the various SQL Server high availability options and discuss the things you need to do - both SQL Server and non-SQL Server - that you need to do to achieve availability.