SQL Server Failover Clustering vs Log Shipping

Developers should learn and use SQL Server Failover Clustering when building or maintaining mission-critical applications that require high availability and minimal downtime, such as financial systems, e-commerce platforms, or healthcare databases meets developers should learn log shipping when building or maintaining mission-critical applications that require robust data protection and minimal downtime, such as financial systems, e-commerce platforms, or healthcare databases. Here's our take.

SQL Server Failover Clustering

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and use SQL Server Failover Clustering when building or maintaining mission-critical applications that require high availability and minimal downtime, such as financial systems, e-commerce platforms, or healthcare databases

Pros

• It is particularly valuable in scenarios where planned maintenance or unplanned hardware failures must not disrupt services, as it provides automatic failover without requiring application-level changes
• Related to: windows-server-failover-clustering, sql-server-always-on-availability-groups

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Log Shipping

Developers should learn Log Shipping when building or maintaining mission-critical applications that require robust data protection and minimal downtime, such as financial systems, e-commerce platforms, or healthcare databases

Pros

• It is particularly useful for scenarios where real-time synchronization is not mandatory but near-real-time data availability is needed for disaster recovery, as it provides a cost-effective alternative to more complex solutions like database mirroring or Always On Availability Groups
• Related to: sql-server, database-backup

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. SQL Server Failover Clustering is a platform while Log Shipping is a methodology. We picked SQL Server Failover Clustering based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

SQL Server Failover Clustering wins

Based on overall popularity. SQL Server Failover Clustering is more widely used, but Log Shipping excels in its own space.