How Do I setup SQL Database Mirroring In Azure

Question

I have setup 3 Azure SQL Server VM's, one primary, one secondary and one witness server. They are all within the same cloud service. I have mirrored a database and everything looks like its working.

1. How do I get the other VM's within the virtual network to use the SQL mirroring I have setup without pointing them directly to the primary SQL servers IP address? Point them to the external SQL cloud service public IP? or DNS name?

2. and If so, How does the Azure SQL VM's mirroring work? When I point the internal VM's to the cloud service, does it just magically know what server to point it to that is the primary? and what if the primary goes down for some reason, does the cloud service know to point traffic to the secondary now (hoping that it flipped to the secondary SQL server) I assume that the witness server has something to do with this, but I am unsure how the cloud service is going to know anything happened.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Rob, the supported setup on Azure is using AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Detailed steps to setup and use are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj870963.aspx You also need to make sure your listener is configured correctly as per: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn376546.aspx. Clients will use the Listener as their connection and the Listener will route the request to the right active node.