HPE SGLX - The new Azure VM extension for SQL Server on Linux

 Overview  

Mission critical SQL Server instances have the need to utilize high availability and disaster recovery features to ensure business continuity. SQL Server on Linux supports HPE Serviceguard as one of the supported clustering solutions. To know more, please refer to HPE Serviceguard for Linux.

We have an official documentation that provides detailed steps on how you can configure SQL Server Always On availability groups with HPE Serviceguard for Linux.  

The purpose of this blog is to inform you about the HPE Serviceguard Extension available in Azure marketplace. This extension allows users to easily create Azure linux-based VMs with SQL Server and HPE Serviceguard pre-installed. As a result, customers can quickly configure SQL Server high availability (HA) solutions. The Serviceguard - Azure VM marketplace extension is available in all Azure regions for use.

Let's get started!  

Create an Azure virtual machine using Azure portal:   

• Log in to Azure portal – portal.azure.com  
• Create Resource group in Azure under the subscription or choose existing resource group of choice.  

• Choose SQL Server on Linux based marketplace image (RHEL or SUSE) and configure the VM on the basis of disks, virtual network, etc.   

• On the Advanced tab of VM creation, click on “Select an extension to install.”   
• Search for HPE Serviceguard for Linux   

• Click on load more and select the extension.  
• Under ‘Select Serviceguard Add-on to install’ , Select Microsoft SQL server on Linux if it’s non-quorum server node machine and select ‘Centralized Serviceguard Management and Arbitration’ if you need Serviceguard quorum server and SGMGR+ (UI) to be configured,.  
• Enter Serviceguard administrative user “sgmgr” password and confirm the same.  

• Proceed to create the VM upon entering the SGLX extension details.  

After you have configured the other two VMs using the steps as outlined above, you can follow this documentation starting from "Create HPE Service guard cluster" section to configure SQL Server Always On availability groups for SQL Server on Linux