Configure the Flexible Failover Policy to Control Conditions for Automatic Failover (AlwaysOn Availability Groups)

This topic describes how to configure the flexible failover policy for an AlwaysOn availability group by using Transact-SQL or PowerShell in SQL Server 2012. A flexible failover policy provides granular control over the conditions that cause automatic failover for an availability group. By changing the failure conditions that trigger an automatic failover and the frequency of health checks, you can increase or decrease the likelihood of an automatic failover to support your SLA for high availability.

• Before you begin:

  Limitations on Automatic Failovers

  Prerequisites

  Security

• To configure the flexible failover policy, using:

  Transact-SQL

  PowerShell

  Note

  The flexible failover policy of an availability group cannot be configured by using SQL Server Management Studio.

Before You Begin

Limitations on Automatic Failovers

• For an automatic failover to occur, the current primary replica and one secondary replica must be configured for synchronous-commit availability mode with automatic failover and the secondary replica must be synchronized with the primary replica.

• If an availability group exceeds its WSFC failure threshold, the WSFC cluster will not attempt an automatic failover for the availability group. Furthermore, the WSFC resource group of the availability group remains in a failed state until either the cluster administrator manually brings the failed resource group online or the database administrator performs a manual failover of the availability group. The WSFC failure threshold is defined as the maximum number of failures supported for the availability group during a given time period. The default time period is six hours, and the default value for the maximum number of failures during this period is n-1, where n is the number of WSFC nodes. To change the failure-threshold values for a given availability group, use the WSFC Failover Manager Console.

Prerequisites

• You must be connected to the server instance that hosts the primary replica.

Security

Permissions

Task	Permissions
To configure the flexible failover policy for a new availability group	Requires membership in the sysadmin fixed server role and either CREATE AVAILABILITY GROUP server permission, ALTER ANY AVAILABILITY GROUP permission, or CONTROL SERVER permission.
To modify the policy of an existing availability group	Requires ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP permission on the availability group, CONTROL AVAILABILITY GROUP permission, ALTER ANY AVAILABILITY GROUP permission, or CONTROL SERVER permission.

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Using Transact-SQL

To configure the flexible failover policy

1. Connect to the server instance that hosts the primary replica.

2. For a new availability group, use the CREATE AVAILABILITY GROUP Transact-SQL statement. If you are modifying an existing availability group, use the ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP Transact-SQL statement.

   • To set the failover condition level, use the FAILURE_CONDITION_LEVEL = n option, where, n is an integer from 1 to 5.

     For example, the following Transact-SQL statement changes the failure-condition level of an existing availability group, AG1, to level one:

     ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP AG1 SET (FAILURE_CONDITION_LEVEL = 1); 
     

     The relationship of these integer values to the failure condition levels is as follows:

     Transact-SQL Value	Level	Automatic Is Failover Initiated When…
     1	One	On server down. The SQL Server service stops because of a failover or restart.
     2	Two	On server unresponsive. Any condition of lower value is satisfied, the SQL Server service is connected to the cluster and the health check timeout threshold is exceeded, or the current primary replica is in a failed state.
     3	Three	On critical server error. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or an internal critical server error occurs. This is the default level.
     4	Four	On moderate server error. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or a moderate Server error occurs.
     5	Five	On any qualified failure conditions. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or a qualifying failure condition occurs.

     For more information about the failover condition levels, see Flexible Failover Policy for Automatic Failover of an Availability Group (SQL Server).

   • To configure the health check timeout threshold, use the HEALTH_CHECK_TIMEOUT = n option, where, n is an integer from 15000 milliseconds (15 seconds) to 4294967295 milliseconds. The default value is 30000 milliseconds (30 seconds)

     For example, the following Transact-SQL statement changes the health-check timeout threshold of an existing availability group, AG1, to 60,000 milliseconds (one minute).

     ALTER AVAILABILITY GROUP AG1 SET (HEALTH_CHECK_TIMEOUT = 60000);
     

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Using PowerShell

To configure the flexible failover policy

1. Set default (cd) to the server instance that hosts the primary replica.

2. When adding an availability replica to an availability group, use the New-SqlAvailabilityGroup cmdlet. When modifying an existing availability replica, use the Set-SqlAvailabilityGroup cmdlet.

   • To set the failover condition level, use the FailureConditionLevel level parameter, where, level is one of the following values:

     Value	Level	Automatic Is Failover Initiated When…
     OnServerDown	One	On server down. The SQL Server service stops because of a failover or restart.
     OnServerUnresponsive	Two	On server unresponsive. Any condition of lower value is satisfied, the SQL Server service is connected to the cluster and the health check timeout threshold is exceeded, or the current primary replica is in a failed state.
     OnCriticalServerError	Three	On critical server error. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or an internal critical server error occurs. This is the default level.
     OnModerateServerError	Four	On moderate server error. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or a moderate Server error occurs.
     OnAnyQualifiedFailureConditions	Five	On any qualified failure conditions. Any condition of lower value is satisfied or a qualifying failure condition occurs.

     For more information about the failover condition levels, see Flexible Failover Policy for Automatic Failover of an Availability Group (SQL Server).

     For example, the following command changes the failure-condition level of an existing availability group, AG1, to level one.

     Set-SqlAvailabilityGroup ` 
     -Path SQLSERVER:\Sql\PrimaryServer\InstanceName\AvailabilityGroups\MyAg ` 
     -FailureConditionLevel OnServerDown
     

   • To set the health check timeout threshold, use the HealthCheckTimeout n parameter, where, n is an integer from 15000 milliseconds (15 seconds) to 4294967295 milliseconds. The default value is 30000 milliseconds (30 seconds).

     For example, the following command changes the health-check timeout threshold of an existing availability group, AG1, to 120,000 milliseconds (two minutes).

     Set-SqlAvailabilityGroup ` 
     -Path SQLSERVER:\Sql\PrimaryServer\InstanceName\AvailabilityGroups\MyAG ` 
     -HealthCheckTimeout 120000
     

Note

To view the syntax of a cmdlet, use the Get-Help cmdlet in the SQL Server PowerShell environment. For more information, see Get Help SQL Server PowerShell.

To set up and use the SQL Server PowerShell provider

• SQL Server PowerShell Provider

• Get Help SQL Server PowerShell

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See Also

Reference

sp_server_diagnostics (Transact-SQL)

Concepts

Overview of AlwaysOn Availability Groups (SQL Server)

Availability Modes (AlwaysOn Availability Groups)

Failover Modes (AlwaysOn Availability Groups)

Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) with SQL Server

Failover Policy for Failover Cluster Instances