<p>Every business has it's mission critical applications and data. Therefore, it is very important to keep database servers up and running all the time – 24 X 7. There is a need to store and process terabytes of data to cater for business needs, and it is vital to make data highly available.<br /><br />High availability is all about the site being accessible all the time. High availability solutions minimize the downtime for these mission critical applications.</p> <p>Microsoft SQL Server is a powerful relational database engine, widely used to store and maintain data in Enterprises of various levels be they small, medium or large.</p> <p>This book will teach you how best to use these readily-available options and save you time in making your websites highly available.<br /><br />This Microsoft SQL Server 2008 High Availability book will take you through pre and post installation concepts and common issues you come across while working with SQL Server HA. It will teach you how these various HA solutions can be installed using GUI and the command line. It will also show you how to troubleshoot common issues you may encounter whilst installing or managing the HA option in your environment. It provides references to external links for more advanced learning on the topic.<br /><br />This book starts with an introductory chapter into the windows domain, domain users and various handshake methods available with Windows server. It also offers information the different authentication methods available with SQL Server - giving you an insight into the importance of security. After you are through with the security aspects, your journey to installing SQL Server HA will start. It will cover the concepts of database mirroring, log shipping, clustering, and replication.<br /><br />By the end of this book you will be confident enough to take up the challenge to install any of the SQL Server HA options.</p>