Summary

This technical guide provides a comprehensive overview of setting up a SQL Server 2019 Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). It begins by highlighting the importance of understanding OCI’s availability SLAs, which differ based on deployment strategies: 99.99% for deployments across Availability Domains, 99.95% across Fault Domains, and 99.9% for single VM deployments. The guide emphasizes that the SLA covers VM availability, not the applications or services running on it, thus necessitating additional measures for application availability.

The guide details the initial steps of creating a Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) and subnets in OCI, emphasizing the need for a network plan that accommodates at least three Availability Domains for clustering purposes. Each Availability Domain must be in a different subnet, a requirement applicable to clusters spanning Fault Domains as well. It provides specific configurations for setting up three subnets across different Availability Domains within a single VCN.

Further, the guide describes the process of creating an internet gateway and editing default security lists and route tables to facilitate access and security across Availability Domains. It also covers the configuration of DHCP options for Active Directory compatibility and outlines the steps for provisioning VMs with Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019, emphasizing the importance of planning server names, IP addresses, and availability zone placements.

The guide then delves into adding additional volumes for SQL Server FCI storage needs, detailing the process of creating and attaching block volumes to instances. It also instructs on configuring secondary IP addresses for Windows Server Failover Clustering in OCI.

Next, the guide addresses domain controller setup, including enabling Active Directory Domain Services and promoting the server to a domain controller. It walks through the preparation of storage and enabling of the Failover Clustering feature on SQL1 and SQL2, along with cluster validation and creation processes.

The guide further discusses adding a File Share Witness to maintain cluster quorum and installing DataKeeper Cluster Edition for volume replication. It provides a step-by-step approach to installing SQL Server on the cluster nodes and SQL Server Management Studio, along with considerations for multi-subnet deployments.

In summary, this guide offers a detailed blueprint for deploying and configuring a SQL Server 2019 FCI in OCI, covering aspects from network setup and VM provisioning to clustering, storage configuration, and domain control setup, ensuring maximum uptime and reliability for business-critical applications.