Deploy SQL Server 2016 Basic Availability Groups without Active Directory

[Oksana]

First introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Availability Groups (AGs) were only available in Enterprise Edition, making it challenging to switch from Database Mirroring to AGs, especially in Standard Edition. Now, this problem is solved as SQL Server 2016 introduced Basic Availability Groups (BAGs) in Standard Edition, allowing customers to run some form of limited AGs. However, there is a small trick here. Unlike Database Mirroring, AGs require deploying a Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC) which in its turn requires setting up Active Directory (AD).

Sounds challenging? Don’t worry, in this post, we’ll show you how to deploy BAGs without implementing Active Directory.

Read the full article by Edwin M Sarmiento, a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Certified Master to learn more.