Use PowerShell to add an elastic pool to a failover group

Article
08/12/2024

This Azure PowerShell script example creates a database in Azure SQL Database, adds it to an elastic pool, creates a failover group, and tests failover.

If you don't have an Azure trail subscription, create a trial subscription before you begin.

Note

This article uses the Azure Az PowerShell module, which is the recommended PowerShell module for interacting with Azure. To get started with the Az PowerShell module, see Install Azure PowerShell. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.

This tutorial requires Az PowerShell 1.4.0 or later. If you need to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell module. If you are running PowerShell locally, you also need to run Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud to create a connection with Azure.

Sample scripts

# Set variables for your server and database
$subscriptionId = '<Subscription-ID>'
$randomIdentifier = $(Get-Random)
$resourceGroupName = "myResourceGroup-$randomIdentifier"
$location = "China East 2"
$adminLogin = "azureuser"
$password = "PWD27!"+(New-Guid).Guid
$serverName = "mysqlserver-$randomIdentifier"
$poolName = "myElasticPool"
$databaseName = "mySampleDatabase"
$drLocation = "China North 2"
$drServerName = "mysqlsecondary-$randomIdentifier"
$failoverGroupName = "failovergrouptutorial-$randomIdentifier"


# The ip address range that you want to allow to access your server 
# Leaving at 0.0.0.0 will prevent outside-of-azure connections
$startIp = "0.0.0.0"
$endIp = "0.0.0.0"

# Show randomized variables
Write-host "Resource group name is" $resourceGroupName 
Write-host "Password is" $password  
Write-host "Server name is" $serverName 
Write-host "DR Server name is" $drServerName 
Write-host "Failover group name is" $failoverGroupName


# Set subscription ID
Set-AzContext -SubscriptionId $subscriptionId 

# Create a resource group
Write-host "Creating resource group..."
$resourceGroup = New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location $location -Tag @{Owner="SQLDB-Samples"}
$resourceGroup

# Create a server with a system-wide unique server name
Write-host "Creating primary logical server..."
New-AzSqlServer -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -Location $location `
   -SqlAdministratorCredentials $(New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential `
   -ArgumentList $adminLogin, $(ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force))
Write-host "Primary logical server = " $serverName

# Create a server firewall rule that allows access from the specified IP range
Write-host "Configuring firewall for primary logical server..."
New-AzSqlServerFirewallRule -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -FirewallRuleName "AllowedIPs" -StartIpAddress $startIp -EndIpAddress $endIp
Write-host "Firewall configured" 

# Create General Purpose Gen5 database with 2 vCore
Write-host "Creating a gen5 2 vCore database..."
$database = New-AzSqlDatabase  -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -DatabaseName $databaseName `
   -Edition "GeneralPurpose" `
   -VCore 2 `
   -ComputeGeneration Gen5 `
   -MinimumCapacity 1 `
   -SampleName "AdventureWorksLT"
$database

# Create primary Gen5 elastic 2 vCore pool
Write-host "Creating elastic pool..."
$elasticPool = New-AzSqlElasticPool -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $serverName `
    -ElasticPoolName $poolName `
    -Edition "GeneralPurpose" `
    -vCore 2 `
    -ComputeGeneration Gen5
$elasticPool

# Add single db into elastic pool
Write-host "Creating elastic pool..."
$addDatabase = Set-AzSqlDatabase -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $serverName `
    -DatabaseName $databaseName `
    -ElasticPoolName $poolName
$addDatabase

# Create a secondary server in the failover region
Write-host "Creating a secondary logical server in the failover region..."
New-AzSqlServer -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $drServerName `
   -Location $drLocation `
   -SqlAdministratorCredentials $(New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential `
      -ArgumentList $adminlogin, $(ConvertTo-SecureString -String $password -AsPlainText -Force))
Write-host "Secondary logical server =" $drServerName

# Create a server firewall rule that allows access from the specified IP range
Write-host "Configuring firewall for secondary logical server..."
New-AzSqlServerFirewallRule -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $drServerName `
   -FirewallRuleName "AllowedIPs" -StartIpAddress $startIp -EndIpAddress $endIp
Write-host "Firewall configured" 

# Create secondary Gen5 elastic 2 vCore pool
Write-host "Creating secondary elastic pool..."
$elasticPool = New-AzSqlElasticPool -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
    -ServerName $drServerName `
    -ElasticPoolName $poolName `
    -Edition "GeneralPurpose" `
    -vCore 2 `
    -ComputeGeneration Gen5
$elasticPool


# Create a failover group between the servers
Write-host "Creating failover group..." 
New-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
  -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -PartnerServerName $drServerName  `
   -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName `
   -FailoverPolicy Automatic `
   -GracePeriodWithDataLossHours 2
Write-host "Failover group created successfully." 

# Add elastic pool to the failover group
Write-host "Enumerating databases in elastic pool...." 
$FailoverGroup = Get-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
                 -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
                 -ServerName $serverName `
                 -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName
$databases = Get-AzSqlElasticPoolDatabase `
               -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
               -ServerName $serverName `
               -ElasticPoolName $poolName
Write-host "Adding databases to failover group..." 
$failoverGroup = $failoverGroup | Add-AzSqlDatabaseToFailoverGroup `
                                  -Database $databases 
$failoverGroup

# Check role of secondary replica
Write-host "Confirming the secondary server is secondary...." 
(Get-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
   -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $drServerName).ReplicationRole

# Failover to secondary server
Write-host "Failing over failover group to the secondary..." 
Switch-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $drServerName `
   -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName
Write-host "Failover group failed over to" $drServerName 

# Check role of secondary replica
Write-host "Confirming the secondary server is now primary" 
(Get-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
   -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $drServerName).ReplicationRole

# Revert failover to primary server
Write-host "Failing over failover group to the primary...." 
Switch-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -FailoverGroupName $failoverGroupName
Write-host "Failover group failed over to" $serverName 

# Clean up resources by removing the resource group
# Write-host "Removing resource group..."
# Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName
# Write-host "Resource group removed =" $resourceGroupName

Clean up deployment

Use the following command to remove the resource group and all resources associated with it.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName

Script explanation

This script uses the following commands. Each command in the table links to command-specific documentation.

Command	Notes
New-AzResourceGroup	Creates a resource group in which all resources are stored.
New-AzSqlServer	Creates a server that hosts databases and elastic pools.
New-AzSqlServerFirewallRule	Creates a server-level firewall rule for a server.
New-AzSqlDatabase	Creates a new database.
New-AzSqlElasticPool	Creates an elastic database pool.
Set-AzSqlDatabase	Sets properties for a database, or moves an existing database into an elastic pool.
New-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup	Creates a new failover group.
Get-AzSqlDatabase	Gets one or more databases.
Add-AzSqlDatabaseToFailoverGroup	Adds one or more databases to a failover group.
Get-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup	Gets or lists database failover groups.
Switch-AzSqlDatabaseFailoverGroup	Executes a failover of a database failover group.
Remove-AzResourceGroup	Removes a resource group

Next steps

For more information on the Azure PowerShell, see Azure PowerShell documentation.

Additional SQL Database PowerShell script samples can be found in the Azure SQL Database PowerShell scripts.

Use PowerShell to add an elastic pool to a failover group

Sample scripts

Clean up deployment

Script explanation

Next steps

Additional resources