SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR)

Dive deep into how SQL Server works to implement an effective high availability and disaster recovery solution.

Created byEdwin M Sarmiento

Last updated 6/2026

English

What you'll learn

By the end of the course, attendees will be able to understand the different SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery technologies - how they work and properly implement the right solution to address recovery objectives and service level agreements

Course content

13 sections • 144 lectures • 87h 38m total length

Introduction17:07
High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) is an area that every SQL Server DBA needs to be comfortable with. In this online course, learn what needs to be considered when embarking on a HA/DR project, the different features and technologies available in SQL Server, and implement them accordingly to meet recovery objectives and service level agreements of mission-critical databases.
The Need for High Availability and Disaster Recovery15:55
With data becoming the lifeblood of every business in our era, high availability and disaster recovery has become a critical business strategy. In this lesson, we'll look at the different trends that drove this need and understand the main goal for this course

Non-Technology Aspects of HA/DR12:24
So, you think high availability and disaster recover is all about technology? Think again. In this lesson, we will look at a key principle that I've personally developed to address the main components of what it takes to implement a successful high availability and disaster recovery project. The concept is so practical that you can take and apply it in just about any aspect of your life outside of IT.
The Alphabet Soup of HA/DR22:40
I call these "The Alphabet Soup of High Availability and Disaster Recovery." These acronyms define the key concepts that we need to understand in order to choose the right technology with the right people and the right budget. We need to learn these concepts by heart in order to have the right conversation with the business stakeholders and get their buy-in.
S.M.H. Those Things That You're not Aware Of But Part of HA/DR46:16
SMH in texting jargon stands for "shaking my head".

Often times, these things are not considered in planning for HA/DR. And they make me want to shake my head.
In this lesson, we will learn who needs to be a part of our team, what other hardware have we not considered and what other storage media is missing from our toolbox. At the end of this lesson, we'll be able to create our own list of things that we need to include in our high availability and disaster recovery plan even before we see SQL Server.

SQL Server Database Recovery Models17:55
We know that SQL Server database recovery models control how the database behaves when dealing with transactions in the log. But there's more to it than that. In this lesson, we will look at the main reason for configuring your database recovery models and how they should influence your backup strategies. We'll also look at a recovery model that I bet you won't find anywhere in SQL Server Books Online
Demo: SQL Server Database Recovery Models20:27
This is the demo that accompanies the database recovery models lecture. In this demo, we will look at the default recovery model from the model database, changing the default recovery model and investigating the undocumented pseudo-simple recovery model. We will also look at a Windows PowerShell script to check which of your databases are in pseudo-simple recovery model.
Demo: The Risk of Switching Recovery Models27:49
This is the first demo that accompanies the database backup types lesson. In this demo, we will look at how to create the different backup types using SQL Server Management Studio. We will also look at the risks involved when switching your database recovery model from FULL to BULK_LOGGED and back to FULL and how to mitigate them.

Database Backups48:44
This lesson will look at different SQL Server backup types and the most common ones used in the field. We will also look at some guidelines on choosing the appropriate backup strategies to meet your recovery objectives and service level agreements.
Demo: Understanding Multi-base Differential Backups27:18
This is the second demo that accompanies the database backup types lesson. In this demo, we will look at understanding how multi-base differential backups work. The walkthrough will show you that not all latest DIFFERENTIAL backups can be restored with the FULL database backup. This example is a great way to learn how SQL Server reads log sequence numbers stored in the backup media to construct an effective restore chain.

Inside the SQL Server Transaction Log48:57
This lesson talks about understanding the SQL Server transaction log. We will look at how the transaction log works, what virtual log files (VLFs) are, the circular nature of the transaction log, and how it affects all of the high availability and disaster recovery technologies that you will implement with your SQL Server infrastructure. The key idea in this lesson is that the transaction log is the most important part of your SQL Server database.
Demo: Inside the SQL Server Transaction Log32:41
This is the demo that accompanies the lesson on the transaction log internals. This explains the structure of the transaction log file, the number and size of the virtual log files (VLFs), the circular nature of the log and what permits or prevents the transaction log from getting truncated/cleared. This also shows how to use the undocumented functions - fn_dblog() and fn_dump_dblog() - to analyze the transaction log records directly from the log file or from backups.
Demo:Effects of the Transaction Log Filling Up5:54
This a short demo on what happens to your SQL Server database when the transaction log fills up. I used a SharePoint Server 2013 site collection as an example to illustrate how a database can be switched to read-only without us knowing as a side effect of the transaction log file filling up. Feel free to invite a SharePoint administrator to watch this video with you.

Database Restore and Recovery20:31
This lesson describes restore and recovery, the different phases of restore, how crash recovery works and how it affects all of the high availability and disaster recovery technologies that you choose to implement on your SQL Server database.
Factors Affecting Restore And Recovery24:04
Now that we've learned about how the transaction log works, how recovery models affect logging, the different backup types and how restore and recovery works, it's time to look at the different factors that affect recovery. This lesson will reinforce the concepts learned from the previous lessons and look at the different factors that effect database recovery. You can take the concepts that you'll learn in this lesson to constantly evaluate whether or not your strategies still meet your recovery objectives and service level agreements.
DEMO:Effects of Instant File Initialization10:54
See how the effects of a simple configuration change can improve your database performance - whether you're creating a new database, extending the size due to an autogrowth event, adding another file or even as critical as a database restore. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to meet your recovery objectives. This configuration needs to be on all of your SQL Server instances, regardless of editions.
Demo: Database Recovery Techniques1:18:27
This demo video is a compilation of different database recovery techniques that SQL Server DBAs should be familiar and comfortable with. We will look at recovering a database to a specific point in time, isolating critical objects or using table partitioning as an HA/DR option (more commonly called online piecemeal restore) and performing page-level restores.

Protecting System Databases19:16
It's not enough to protect your user databases. System databases are at the core of a SQL Server instance. Without them, you won't be able to start your SQL Server service. In this lesson, we will look at what they are and what they are responsible for. We will also look at how to protect the system databases and how we can prepare in case the system databases are unavailable.
Demo: Protecting System Databases10:55
This is the demo that accompanies the lesson on protecting system databases. We will look at recovering a SQL Server instance when the drive that hosts the system databases becomes unavailable and how to move the system databases to a different drive as part of your disaster recovery process.

Understanding and Implementing SQL Server Database Mirroring46:36
This lesson talks about database mirroring, how it works, the different scenarios that we need to deal with and the factors affecting failover time. The concepts learned in this lesson will form the basis for understanding the new SQL Server 2012 Availability Groups feature.
Demo: Implementing Database Mirroring - The Simple Way22:14
This is the first demo that accompanies the lesson on database mirroring. We will look at a common database mirroring configuration - SQL Server instances that are in the same Active Directory domain. We will also simulate some of the scenarios we talked about in the lesson - failure of the mirror database and simultaneous failure of both the mirror server and the witness server - and how those failures affect database availability and the SEND the REDO queues in a database mirroring configuration.
Demo: Implementing Database Mirroring on Workgroup Servers - The Hard Way15:21
This is the second demo that accompanies the lesson on database mirroring. We will look at configuring database mirroring across servers that are not members of an Active Directory domain. The steps in doing so are tricky so make sure to test this out in your lab prior to implementing it in your production environment.

Understanding and Implementing SQL Server Log Shipping28:05
This lesson describes how SQL Server log shipping works and the underlying concepts behind it. At a high level, log shipping is simply an automated process of taking a log backup, copying it and restoring it on a standby database. It's really no different from how transaction log backup and restore works.
Demo: Implementing SQL Server Log Shipping25:39
This is the demo that accompanies the lesson on SQL Server log shipping. We will go thru the traditional way of configuring log shipping for a SQL Server database using SQL Server Management Studio. We will also look at a potential solution that you can use even on editions of SQL Server that don't officially support log shipping, such as the Express Editions

SQL Server Failover Clustering Fundamentals53:21
This lesson discusses the fundamentals of Windows Server Failover Clustering in the context of a SQL Server failover clustered instance. We will look at the different concepts to understand how Windows Server Failover Clustering works to support highly available SQL Server databases. The concepts learned in this lesson also form the foundation for understanding the SQL Server Availability Groups feature.

NOTE: This topic alone demands its own dedicated course due to the scope. If you or your team are interested in learning more about this, schedule a call with me using my online calendar

https://learnsqlserverhadr.com/call
Demo: Implementing SQL Server Failover Clustered Instances From Start to Finish58:27
This is the first demo that accompanies the lesson on SQL Server failover clustering fundamentals. We will build a traditional 2-node SQL Server failover clustered instance on Windows Server 2012 from start to finish and install SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1.
Demo: SQL Server 2012 Multi-Subnet/Geographically-Dispersed Failover Clusters57:00
SQL Server 2012 natively supports multi-subet/geographically dispersed clusters. In this second demo on failover clustering, we will build a 2-node SQL Server failover clustered instance that spans across multiple geographical locations. We will also look at the different network configurations that need to be considered to achieve our recovery objectives and service level agreements
Implementing SQL Server Failover Clustered Instances (2022 Edition) - Part 11:15:04
This is an update to the SQL Server failover clustering installation. We will build a traditional 2-node SQL Server 2022 failover clustered instance on Windows Server 2022 - from start to finish.

Part 1 is all about installing, creating, and configuring the Windows Server 2022 failover cluster.

Download the Cluster Preparation Checklist from here
https://learnsqlserverhadr.com/clusterprepchecklist
Implementing SQL Server Failover Clustered Instances (2022 Edition) - Part 246:50
This is an update to the SQL Server failover clustering installation. We will build a traditional 2-node SQL Server 2022 failover clustered instance on Windows Server 2022 - from start to finish.

Part 2 is all about installing a SQL Server 2022 failover clustered instance and adding nodes.
Implementing SQL Server Failover Clustered Instances (2022 Edition) - Part 31:08:00
This is an update to the SQL Server failover clustering installation. We will build a traditional 2-node SQL Server 2022 failover clustered instance on Windows Server 2022 - from start to finish.

Part 3 is all about installing updates on a SQL Server 2022 failover clustered instance.

As an added bonus, it will also show how you can save time installing the updates by slipstreaming them during the installation.

Requirements

Attendees should have a basic understanding of managing and administering SQL Server databases

Description

This is a deep dive course on understanding how SQL Server works to effectively choose the right high availability and disaster recovery solution that will address every organization's need to protect digital assets.

Packed with videos explaining concept and demos to reinforce the lessons, this course is what every IT professional needs to properly manage and protect a SQL Server database.

If you're a SQL Server database administrator or a systems administrator responsible for SQL Server databases, this is for you. You want to be well-informed and skilled in protecting SQL Server databases from unwanted data loss and outages. Because outages and data loss happen to databases. It's only a matter of time.

The course primarily uses SQL Server 2012 for demonstrations. But the concepts still apply to later versions of SQL Server on Windows - even SQL Server 2025 on Windows Server 2025.

OR...Just watch hours of Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show episode videos...FOR FREE.

The goal of the Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show is to provide guidance and lessons beyond the technical know-how. It's the non-technical aspects of high availability and disaster recovery that most technology professionals often overlook but are as equally important nonetheless.

Get access to these videos without signing up on Udemy. Just expand the section Practical SQL Server HA/DR Show to watch the videos.

Who this course is for:

Senior IT professionals
SQL Server administrators
Software developers who write applications for SQL Server

SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR)

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction2 lectures • 33min

Non-Technology Aspects of High Availability and Disaster Recovery3 lectures • 1hr 21min

SQL Server Recovery Models3 lectures • 1hr 6min

SQL Server Database Backups2 lectures • 1hr 16min

SQL Server Transaction Log Internals3 lectures • 1hr 28min

SQL Server Database Restore and Recovery4 lectures • 2hr 14min

SQL Server System Databases2 lectures • 30min

SQL Server Database Mirroring3 lectures • 1hr 24min

SQL Server Log Shipping2 lectures • 54min

SQL Server Failover Clustering6 lectures • 5hr 59min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: