SQL Always On High Availability with SQL 2016 Courseware (55246AC)

This three-day course provides a thorough understanding of AlwaysOn and high availability concepts in relation to SQL and Server 2016. It commences with an introduction to the course and its objectives.

The second module presents essential concepts and terminology, such as Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and Storage Area Networks (SAN). It offers insights into the changes brought by SQL Server 2014 and 2016 and also covers the features of SQL Server versions before the advent of Always On.

The third module delves into Windows Server 2016 Failover Clustering, a crucial feature of AlwaysOn High Availability. Concepts like quorums, node majority, cluster networks best practices, and cluster aware updating are covered in this module.

Moving to the specifics involving SQL, the fourth module focuses on SQL 2016 Failover Cluster Instances. It gives an understanding of how a failover cluster instance appears to a client.

The fifth module revolves around the concept of Availability Groups within the failover clusters of SQL. Here, various concepts like availability groups and replicas, availability mode, failover modes, and common topologies are elucidated.

The sixth module introduces the Dashboard, a tool used for managing AlwaysOn High Availability groups with SQL 2016. It provides techniques to view logs, use replication with logins, and operate partially contained databases.

The seventh module is about Active Secondary Availability Group Actions. It outlines the procedures for reporting with secondary replicas, database backups with secondary, and configuring a readable secondary.

In the eighth module, maintenance procedures for AlwaysOn High Availability Groups are discussed. The module guides the students on how to add and remove databases and replicas.

The ninth and final module covers monitoring and troubleshooting availability groups. It covers the dashboard in depth, events, and policy-based management for availability groups. It concludes the course by focusing on extended events and changing endpoint owners.