SQL Server Express 2008 redundancy

Question

Does anyone know what my options are for redundancy using SQL Server 2008 Express edition. I'm looking to have 2 DB servers running the express edition.

Answer 1

The normal options here are Replication or Mirroring . Express Edition supports neither of those (note the footnotes for the replication entries). I guess the idea is that if your organization cares enough to do it and can afford two boxes for DB redundancy, it can afford a for-pay Sql Server as well.

Answer 2

Do you want high availability or disaster recoverability?

For HA there aren't that many options since Express does not support any HA feature (ie. failover of any kind).

For DR you can set up Log Shipping manually. Although you're missing the log shipping agents, is not rocket science to set up a couple of service jobs to backup the log, copy the files and the apply the logs on your DR site. The original Log Shipping was nothing more than a few .bat scripts put together by MS customer support.

Answer 3

The Express edition of MS products have two purposes. First, they allow new developers a way to get familiar with the microsoft stack without a financial investment.

Second, they are geared towards small non-mission critical apps. It's kind of like peeing in your wetsuit. Sure you can do it, but would you really want to?