Use the DNS CNAME for database connectivity

[Richard West]

We are in the process of migrating and consolidating a few of our SQL
servers. In the process we are upgrading any old server to SQL 2008.

One idea that I had was to begin start using DNS CNAME records for
both SQL Server, and perhaps event the databases themselves.

There is a nice artice about this topic on Tech Republics site:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/networking/?p=460

It sounds like a nice way to abstract the database from a specific SQL
server so that the database could be moved to a new server if required
without any changes to the application code or clients -- just by
making a single DNS change.

However, before I proceed I would like to know if anyone has any
direct experience in using this technique?

Thanks,
Richard

[Slick]

We use this for all our servers and its the best thing ever. Never
have to worry apps, etc.

I can't recall having any bad experiences using this.

[Jonathan Kehayias]

I started implementing CNAME's at my job almost immediately upon being hired there, and I have never had a issue associated with using them.  We split CNAME's at the application level for example MOSS 2010, we have DB-MOSS, DB-MOSS-DEV, and DB-MOSS-QA all pointing to different servers.  We started with DB-MOSS pointed at shared consolidated server, but when the full production rollout occured, the high connection rates and constant usage led us to move the MOSS databases to a separate environment dedicated to it.  We did that my mirroring the databases to the new server, and then in a short downtime, we initiated failover of mirroring in SQL, changed the CNAME in DNS, and after running ipconfig /flushdns on the MOSS farm everything was back online, it took less than 3 minutes to accomplish.  I'd highly recommend using them.

 

Jonathan Kehayias, MCITP
jmkeh...@gmail.com
SQL Server MVP
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/
http://twitter.com/sqlsarg

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[Richard West]

Thanks for the great feedback! I think that this is something that we
will be implementing.