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Specify Availability Group Options page for an Always On availability group

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

This article describes the options of the Specify Availability Group Options page. This article is used by both the New Availability Group Wizard and Add Database to Availability Group Wizard of SQL Server.

Specify Availability Group Options

Availability group name

Specify the name of the availability group. For a new availability group, specify a valid SQL Server identifier that is unique across all availability groups in the Windows Server failover cluster (WSFC). The maximum length for an availability group name is 128 characters.

Cluster type dropdown list

Next, specify the cluster type. The possible cluster types depend on the SQL Server version and operating system. Choose one from the following list:

  • Windows Server Failover Clustering

    Use when the availability group is hosted on instances of SQL Server that belong to a Windows Server failover cluster for high availability and disaster recovery. Applies to all supported versions of SQL Server.

  • EXTERNAL

    Use when the availability group is hosted on an instance of SQL Server that is managed by an external cluster technology for high availability and disaster recovery, for example Pacemaker on Linux. Applies to SQL Server 2017 (14.x) and later.

    Important

    Don't choose cluster type = EXTERNAL on a Windows platform. Doing so results in the availability group going into a resolving state, and will prevent you from removing databases from the availability group.

  • NONE

    Use when the availability group is hosted on an instance of SQL Server that isn't managed by a cluster technology for read scale and load balancing. Applies to SQL Server 2017 (14.x) and later.

Database Level Health Detection checkbox

Check this box to enable database level health detection (DB_FAILOVER) option for the availability group. The database health detection notices when a database is no longer in the online status, when something goes wrong, and triggers the automatic failover of the availability group. See SQL Server Always On Database Health Detection Failover Option.

Per Database DTC Support checkbox

Check this box to enable distributed transactions for the databases in the availability group. In order to guarantee distributed transactions, the availability group must be configured to register databases as distributed transaction resource managers. See Configure distributed transactions for an Always On availability group

Contained checkbox

Check this box to create a contained availability group. A contained availability group supports managing metadata objects (users, logins, permissions, SQL Server Agent jobs, etc.) at the availability group level in addition to the instance level.

Reuse System Databases checkbox

When using a contained availability group, check this box if you want to reuse existing system databases from a previously created contained availability group of the same name.

Select Databases page (New Availability Group Wizard and Add Database Wizard).

Next steps