Instance Creation on Secondary Site with Mirroring as DR Mechanism

Question

Hello all..........I am trying to create a multi-site failover cluster (Sql Server 2012).  Due to some support issues, I am unable to use AOAG, so I have decided to use Mirroring among two-2 locations with each
location holding separates instances.  Consider following:
There is Location A and B.
There are two-2 servers each in Location A and B.  They have their own storage.
Location A already has two-2 node failover cluster.  It has instance named Instance_A.
We need to introduce two-2 nodes from Location B to the failover cluster in Location A with its separate instance named Instance_B? How can I make it work?
If I go ahead with the setup.exe from SQL media and try to add node, it will ask me to choose the instance and the only instance available would be Instance_A, but I do not want it to connect to Instance_A.  I
want to join the two-2 nodes in Location B to the failover cluster in a way that Instance_B stays on Location B servers and Instance_A stays on Location A servers.  So that I can configure mirroring among the two.  I would appreciate headway into
this.  Thanks.   

Answer 1

Hi Technet Junkie,
For multisite cluster, failover cluster not “aware” the shared storage replicate, therefore you must ask your storage vendor for the multisite storage replicate solution, In
SQL Server 2008 support multi-instances in one cluster environment. The method used to install a new SQL Server 2008 cluster instance is the same with the first one. The detail steps to fulfill that, please refer to the document: How to: Create a New SQL Server
Failover Cluster (Setup): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179530.aspx
Based on my experience, there is one thing we need to pay attention. It is the instance ID. In SQL Server 2008, the instance ID decides not only the instance Name but also the
folder path name on the disk. Please make sure the instance ID for one instance is identical on the nodes, but different with the other instance.
The similar thread:
SQL 2012 Cluster Multi Instances !
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/56f2d87b-3d7d-4ebb-8ae1-000727acef20/sql-2012-cluster-multi-instances-?forum=sqldisasterrecovery
More detail about the SQL Server question please post to theSQL Server forum.
SQL Server forum:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-us/home?category=sqlserver
Thanks for your understanding and support.
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