Database Mirror or Log Shipping?

We are going to setup a new secondary server for reporting purpose. A group
of users will use the secondary database for data modeling, analysis, etc.
We have already setup two log shipping secondary servers for the primary,
one is over WAN. The logs are backup and restore on every 15 minutes. For
the past several years, log shipping has been working fine.
I would like to hear some opinion about database mirror, especially from
those who are using database mirror now. Is there any complication after
use database mirror?
Thanks!
LijunYou cannot use a DB that is the target of log shipping. However, you can
create a DB snapshot on a DB mirror and report off of that.
--
Tom
----
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS
SQL Server MVP
Toronto, ON Canada
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom.Moreau
"Lijun Zhang" <sonyzhang00@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:O%23Zoc8NiHHA.4300@.TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
We are going to setup a new secondary server for reporting purpose. A group
of users will use the secondary database for data modeling, analysis, etc.
We have already setup two log shipping secondary servers for the primary,
one is over WAN. The logs are backup and restore on every 15 minutes. For
the past several years, log shipping has been working fine.
I would like to hear some opinion about database mirror, especially from
those who are using database mirror now. Is there any complication after
use database mirror?
Thanks!
Lijun|||Are there any issues with the mirror staying updated while there is a
snapshot of it?
I seem to remember something like this, but I think it was more an issue
with log shipping. For example, logshipping to another server -- and putting
a snapshot on the destination -- causes problems with log shipping restores
being able to be applied. probably not an issue with mirroring but i
couldn't remember.
If you would ever failover to the reporting server if the live OLTP went
down, remember that if it is a corruption -- the mirrored box might become
corrupted as well -- but with a log shipping box that is slightly delayed you
might be able to stop the corrupted log from being applied if you catch it
ahead of time.
Robert
"Tom Moreau" wrote:
> You cannot use a DB that is the target of log shipping. However, you can
> create a DB snapshot on a DB mirror and report off of that.
> --
> Tom
> ----
> Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS
> SQL Server MVP
> Toronto, ON Canada
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom.Moreau
>
> "Lijun Zhang" <sonyzhang00@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:O%23Zoc8NiHHA.4300@.TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> We are going to setup a new secondary server for reporting purpose. A group
> of users will use the secondary database for data modeling, analysis, etc.
> We have already setup two log shipping secondary servers for the primary,
> one is over WAN. The logs are backup and restore on every 15 minutes. For
> the past several years, log shipping has been working fine.
> I would like to hear some opinion about database mirror, especially from
> those who are using database mirror now. Is there any complication after
> use database mirror?
> Thanks!
> Lijun
>
>|||There are no issues with the mirror being updated by the primary while there
is a snap shot. Indeed, this is a means of using the primary as a reporting
server, thus off-loading work from the primary.
I don't believe that you can log ship to a destination and mirror off of
that.
You can take a belt and suspenders approach and use mirroring, plus log ship
to another destination. As long as you keep all logs and not the time of
the corruption, you can stop the restores just prior to the corruption.
Also, take snapshots frequently, you can revert to a snapshot.
--
Tom
----
Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS
SQL Server MVP
Toronto, ON Canada
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom.Moreau
"sql411@.nospam.com" <sql411nospamcom@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:C9685BFA-7131-40F7-AB41-2D23E1FFF592@.microsoft.com...
Are there any issues with the mirror staying updated while there is a
snapshot of it?
I seem to remember something like this, but I think it was more an issue
with log shipping. For example, logshipping to another server -- and
putting
a snapshot on the destination -- causes problems with log shipping restores
being able to be applied. probably not an issue with mirroring but i
couldn't remember.
If you would ever failover to the reporting server if the live OLTP went
down, remember that if it is a corruption -- the mirrored box might become
corrupted as well -- but with a log shipping box that is slightly delayed
you
might be able to stop the corrupted log from being applied if you catch it
ahead of time.
Robert
"Tom Moreau" wrote:
> You cannot use a DB that is the target of log shipping. However, you can
> create a DB snapshot on a DB mirror and report off of that.
> --
> Tom
> ----
> Thomas A. Moreau, BSc, PhD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCITP, MCTS
> SQL Server MVP
> Toronto, ON Canada
> https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Tom.Moreau
>
> "Lijun Zhang" <sonyzhang00@.yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:O%23Zoc8NiHHA.4300@.TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> We are going to setup a new secondary server for reporting purpose. A
> group
> of users will use the secondary database for data modeling, analysis, etc.
> We have already setup two log shipping secondary servers for the primary,
> one is over WAN. The logs are backup and restore on every 15 minutes. For
> the past several years, log shipping has been working fine.
> I would like to hear some opinion about database mirror, especially from
> those who are using database mirror now. Is there any complication after
> use database mirror?
> Thanks!
> Lijun
>
>