Actual Emails: Will MSOLEDB work for connecting to an Availability Group?

Scenario:

We need to configure an existing legacy application from an external vendor to talk to our new SQL Server 2017 Availability Group, which spans multiple subnets. In the end, that last bit is the key. The old data provider MSOLEDB will work for connecting to single-subnet Availability Group listeners, but won't work consistently when connecting to a multisubnet Availability Group's listener. The key is the ability to specify MultiSubNetFailover=True in the connection parameters.

Client's software vendor:

The connection used is the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server that is supplied by Microsoft to create the Data Link Properties. When configuring our Data Link, we use the "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server". The connection string is formatted: 

Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Password="whatever";Persist Security Info=True;User ID=username;Initial Catalog=Test;Data Source=ServerName 

Answer:

Good info, but we do need to make a change here. SQLOLEDB is the provider from back in the SQL 2000 era. Do not recommend its use for new development. It has been replaced by the Native Client (SNAC), which has since been replaced by MSOLEDBSQL (I linked below).  It should be easy and transparent to upgrade the provider from SQLOLEDB with no negative impact.

Here’s why we need to upgrade the data provider to talk to our SQL Availability Group. The SQL Server Listener for a multi-subnet Availability Group actually has two IP’s. When you perform at a command line:

Nslookup SQLListenerNameWhatever 

You get back an IP in each subnet (in our case, two), for each replica SQL instance in the Availability Group. 

When a connection string uses MultiSubNetFailover=True and connecting to the Availability Group Listener name (not the IP or either SQL Server instance name), BOTH IP’s are tried simultaneously and immediately, and the driver talks only to the IP that replies: the primary replica.  After a failover, the other IP begins to reply immediately, and so there is no delay in reconnectivity when a failover occurs. 

Without specifying MultiSubNetFailover=True, your application will (essentially randomly) pick ONE of the two IP’s for the Listener, and try it. There is no way to “rig” one IP to be first consistently over time. If it picks the primary replica, everything works! If it picks the IP for the current secondary replica… your application’s connection timeout will have to expire and then try the next IP.  This is why I’m bringing this up – the application will timeout upon SQL login without MultiSubNetFailover=True.

This hasn’t been an issue with your other clients if they aren’t using a multisubnet availability group. If they have an Availability Group all inside only one subnet, then the Listener only has one IP in DNS, and MultiSubNetFailover=True isn’t required.

You should be fine to install the MSOLEDBSQL provider released in 2018 and use that in your data link. Obviously it should be tested for due diligence, but it should work. At the very least, you could try instead the SQL Native Client 11 (SQLNCLI11), which was released for SQL Server 2012, and it also should work just fine for both OLEDB or ODBC.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Connection string information for SQL Server Availability Groups:

• The SQL Native Client (SNAC) Sqlncli10 will NOT work for connecting to a multisubnet Availability Group because it cannot specify MultiSubNetFailover=True. Must use the newer SQLNCLI11, however, the SQL Native Client (SNAC) is no longer maintained by Microsoft.
• OLEDB has been un-deprecated via the new MSOLEDBSQL providerreleased in 2018. 
• Recommend convert your connection strings from sqlncli1n or sqloledb,to msoledbsql.
• There is also a relatively new ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Serverprovider being actively updated.

Note: you also need to make sure your Windows Cluster has RegisterAllProviderIP's set to ON for a multisubnet Availability Group!

Thanks for joining us at SQLSaturday Dallas!

Thanks for joining hundreds of SQL pros from around the country today at UTDallas!

Here's my session downloads from my presentation today at 1:15 in room 1.102, there's a handy .zip file in there with all the contents for easy reference. They have also been uploaded to the SQLSaturday Dallas website and downloadable from the schedule page.

Why a 101-level presentation? One of the pieces of feedback we consistently have received over the past 10 years of SQLSaturday Baton Rouge is there's not enough entry-level content. This is why I try to deliver low-level entry ramp style presentations for jobseekers, job switchers, and students at SQLSaturdays. And it's not something "beneath" me, because these foundational, fundamental principles are important for new careers and, at the edges, I still learn things that round out my knowledge and further my own career.

Is @william_a_dba giving a presentation on security permissions or singing opera? Or both? #SQLSatDallas pic.twitter.com/bYFwbsmFn2

— Christine Assaf (@HRTact) June 1, 2019

Near capacity here for @HRTact at #SQLSatDallas. I'm not saying she drew three times the number of people that I did, but all her people are awake too. :/ #NotBitter #NotJealous :) pic.twitter.com/F4hQAUaV5i

— William Assaf (@william_a_dba) June 1, 2019

See you at SQLSaturday Dallas!

Both my wife and I will be speaking this weekend at SQLSaturday Dallas, back-to-back in room 1.102, and both on topics perfect for entry level IT pros, job seekers, and students. We're honored to be on a SQLSaturday schedule filled with some of the biggest names in the industry, so I hope to see you there! Looking forward to seeing so many #SQLFamily there again.

I'll be presenting on SQL Security Principals and Permissions 101, a ground-level introduction to SQL Server authentication, security principals and even some security principles. We'll go through some code demos about how stored procedures assist the DBA by abstracting the permissions necessary for execution, and how you could design a database security model using role-based, least-permissions pattern. I think everyone can learn something from this session, from DBA's to developers, and how better to secure their databases.

See you at UT Dallas this Saturday, June 1!