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View Always On failover cluster instances in Azure Arc (preview)

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Applies to: SQL Server

Always On failover clustering is a high availability technology that leverages Windows Server failover clustering to provide local redundancy at an instance level.

Note

As a preview feature, the technology presented in this article is subject to Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.

The latest updates are available in the Release notes - SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc.

If the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc is configured as a failover cluster instance, additional information about the host Windows failover cluster is also shown in the Azure portal. The Azure SQL extension agent on each of the nodes participating in the Windows cluster recognizes the installed SQL binaries as an installation of SQL Server. The agent projects the installation into Azure as a SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resource. In addition to each of these SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resources, the clustered resource also gets projected into Azure, also as SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resource type. This means that a cluster with n nodes projects n+1 SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resources.

View cluster configuration, SQL Server, and database properties

All the information about the SQL Server configuration such as server configuration, database inventory and metadata, backups, cluster configuration, Defender status etc. is available on the clustered resource. The clustered resource can be differentiated from the other resources in the resource group by one of two ways:

  • The name of the Azure Arc-enabled SQL resource following the pattern <NetworkName>_<InstanceName>.
  • The Always On role property in the Essentials pane in Azure portal would show Failover cluster instance.

In addition, the database resources are nested under the clustered resource. For example, <DatabaseName> (<NetworkName>_<InstanceName>/<DatabaseName>).

Cluster configuration

To view the cluster configuration:

  1. Browse to the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resource named <NetworkName>_<InstanceName>
  2. Select Overview
  3. Select Properties

The portal displays the host cluster configuration under Properties.

View databases

To view the cluster configuration:

  1. Browse to the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc resource named <NetworkName>_<InstanceName>
  2. Select on Databases tab

The portal displays the databases on the SQL Server instance.

Limitations

  • All the Windows and SQL Server instances that are part of the failover clustering should be in same resource group.
  • Always On availability groups on a failover cluster instance aren't supported for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc at this time.
  • Currently, best practices assessment isn't supported with Always On failover cluster instance.
  • Automated backups and point-in-time restore isn't supported for failover cluster instances at this time.
  • SQL failover cluster instances with multiple network names are not supported at this time.
  • For extension versions older than 1.1.2620.127, SQL failover cluster instances which use a different network name than the one configured during installation are not supported.