SQL Server 2019 Read-Scaling with mixed Server Versions

Johannes Maly 61 Reputation points
2021-10-28T13:40:26.55+00:00

I would like to know if it is possible and legal to create a read-only replica of a database hosted on a SQL Server 2019 Enterprise on a SQL Server 2019 Standard Edition.

Concrete I would like to use the AG feature to decouple reporting tasks from the Enterprise Server and just replicate one or more DB's to a much cheaper Standard Edition Server. So far I only found basic information on how read-scaling could be setup but no details about licensing issues.

Of course a second SQL Server 2019 Enterprise license is quite a bunch of money for just having a DB replicated for reporting tasks.
In my scenario failsafe clustering feature is off topic. The reporting server is not mission critical.

Any help or ideas are welcome

Regards
Johannes

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  1. Erland Sommarskog 100.1K Reputation points MVP
    2021-10-28T21:45:37.883+00:00

    I don't think that is possible. The only sort of AG you can create on a Standard Edition is a Basic Availability Group, which is a two-node AG with no readable secondary. I can't say for sure that it cannot be clusterless (i.e. read-scale), but since it cannot be readonly, there is little point in any way.

    If you want this combo, you may want to consider log shipping or transactional replication.

    You would have to be little careful and not use features not supported on Standard Edition, although that is less of problem these days.


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  1. YufeiShao-msft 7,046 Reputation points
    2021-10-29T08:06:13.817+00:00

    Hi @Johannes Maly ,

    You may not achieve your goal.
    Each server instance must be running the same version of SQL Server to participate in an Always On Availability Group.
    https://learn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/sql/database-engine/availability-groups/windows/prereqs-restrictions-recommendations-always-on-availability?view=sql-server-ver15#sql-server-instance-prerequisites-and-restrictions

    for read-only replica, may be transaction replication suit your problem

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