Administering a SQL Database Infrastructure — Question 167

You work as a Database Administrator (DBA) for a company named ABC.com.
The company uses a Microsoft SQL Server 2012 infrastructure.
A server named ABC-SQL1 hosts multiple databases that are accessed using OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) applications.
You are concerned about the lack of redundancy provided by this single server solution.
You want to configure a solution that ensures high-availability for the databases while minimizing costs.
You need to ensure that the databases remain online in the event of a hardware failure of ABCSQL1.
You configure a second server named ABC-SQL2 and install SQL Server 2012.
Which of the following solutions would provide the high-availability and enable users to run reports on both copies of the databases?

Answer options

Correct answer: A

Explanation

AlwaysOn availability groups are designed specifically for high availability and allow databases to remain online even during server failures, enabling reporting on both copies. A failover cluster typically provides failover but doesn't allow simultaneous read access to the databases. Database mirroring and transaction log shipping do not support concurrent reporting on both copies effectively.