Create a SQL Server availability group cluster deployment

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Solution overview

This template uses the PowerShell DSC extension to deploy a fully configured availability group with SQL Server 2014 replicas.

This template creates the following resources:

  • 1 Virtual Network
  • 4 Azure storage accounts
    • 1 for domain controller virtual machines
    • 1 for SQL Server virtual machines
    • 1 for Failover Cluster File Share Witness
    • 1 for deployment diagnostics
  • 1 internal load balancer
  • 1 external load balancer
  • 3 virtual machines in a Windows Server Cluster
    • 2 SQL Server 2014 Enterprise edition replicas with an availability group
    • 1 virtual machine is a File Share Witness for the Cluster
  • 2 domain controller virtual machines replicas for a new Forest and Domain
  • 2 Availability Sets
    • 1 for domain controller virtual machines
      
    • 1 for SQL Server and Witness virtual machines
      
  • 1 public IP addresses for RDP access

Tags: SQL Server, Always On, Availability Group, AG, High Availability, Cluster, Microsoft.Resources/deployments, Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/extensions, DSC, Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces, SqlIaaSAgent, Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts, Microsoft.Network/publicIPAddresses, Microsoft.Network/loadBalancers, Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks, Microsoft.Compute/availabilitySets, Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines, extensions

Notes

  • File Share Witness and SQL Server VMs are from the same Availability Set and currently there is a constraint for mixing DS-Series machine, DS_v2-Series machine and GS-Series machine into the same Availability Set. If you decide to have DS-Series SQL Server VMs you must also have a DS-Series File Share Witness; If you decide to have GS-Series SQL Server VMs you must also have a GS-Series File Share Witness; If you decide to have DS_v2-Series SQL Server VMs you must also have a DS_v2-Series File Share Witness.

  • The default settings for SQL Server storage are to deploy using premium storage, the AD witness uses a P10 Disk and the SQL VMs use P30 disks, these sizes can be changed by changing the relevant variables. In addition there is a P10 Disk used for each VMs OS Disk.

  • In default settings for compute require that you have at least 15 cores of free quota to deploy.

  • The images used to create this deployment are

    • DC - Latest Windows Server 2012 R2 Image
    • SQL Server - Latest SQL Server 2014 on Windows Server 2012 R2 Image or Latest SQL Server 2012SP1 on Windows Server 2012 R2 Image
    • Witness - Latest Windows Server 2012 R2 Image
  • Once deployed access can be gained by the public IP address of Primary Domain Controller