SQL 2008 Mirroring, how to failover from the mirror database?

Posted by Luis on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Luis
Published on 2010-04-28T17:55:19Z Indexed on 2010/04/28 17:57 UTC
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sql-server-2008

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mirroring

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high-availability

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failover

I have configured a database mirroring setup in SQL 2008 using the High-safety, Synchronous mode, without automatic failover. I don't have a Witness instance.

Regarding high availability, I understand Mirroring is a better strategy than Log Shipping (faster and smoother failover), and cheaper than Clustering (because of license and hardware costs).

According to the MS docs, to do the failover you need to access to the Principal database and in the "Mirror" options click the "Failover" button. But I want to do this from the Mirror database, because what would be the benefit as all this setup is being done in case the Principal server knocks down?

Evidently I am missing something. If Mirroring is not a solution for server downtime (as would be Clustering, if I understand correctly), then which practical (i.e. real world examples) cases would benefit from Mirroring for high-availability purposes?

Thank you very much for your response! I really need some enlightment.

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