Accomplishing Fallback Support

To invoke fallback support for two databases in a one-primary to one-fallback configuration, follow the steps that are listed below. Only the system administrator (SA) can invoke the fallback feature. Each sp_fallback_ procedure takes only seconds to complete.

    To invoke the fallback feature
    To take over a switchable disk

The following steps should be performed each time the fallback server takes over a switchable disk from the primary server and assigns a new drive letter to the disk:

  1. Record that the switchable hard drive seen as "D:" by the primary server will be seen as "H:" by the fallback server:
    exec sp_fallback_upd_dev_drive 'svrprimary' ,'D:' ,'H:'
      
  2. Activate live fallback support for all databases enrolled from that server and execute the following:.
    exec sp_fallback_activate_svr_db 'svrprimary', '%'
      

If the underlying fallback architecture supports registering applications that are launched automatically when the fallback server takes over, then an application (using DB-Library or ODBC) could be written that connects to the fallback server and executes the stored procedures after each disk switchover.

Note If your model database is 1 MB, then a database device of only 1 MB can hold an entire database. To experiment and familiarize yourself with setting up fallback, use a standard 1.44 MB floppy diskette. To activate the fallback server, you can transfer the floppy diskette from the primary server to the fallback server after stopping the primary server.