SQL Server availability solutions for Microsoft Identity Manager services databases

This article describes the availability solutions for Microsoft SQL Server for the Microsoft Identity Manager service (FIMService) and the Synchronization service (FIMSynchronizationService) databases.

Original product version:   Microsoft Identity Manager 2016
Original KB number:   3200896

High availability

High availability (HA) is supported in the following scenarios for a configuration of SQL Server:

  • Failover clustering is supported.
  • Mirroring is supported on 4.4.1459.0 or later versions.
  • Always On Availability Groups is supported on 4.4.1459.0 or later versions.
  • Synchronization server HA isn't supported.

Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery is supported in the following scenarios for a configuration of SQL Server:

  • Log shipping is supported.
  • Mirroring is supported (this feature will likely be deprecated in future SQL Server versions).
  • Always On Availability Groups is supported - [Synchronous (supported on 4.4.1459.0 or later versions)/Asynchronous-Commit Availability mode]

Known issues and findings

Note

Unless otherwise specified, the following items apply to all databases for the MIM server components.

  • The SQLNCLI OLE DB Provider doesn't support the MultiSubnetFailover keyword. To use the MultiSubnetFailover keyword, use the ODBC driver. For more information, see SQL Server Native Client Support for High Availability, Disaster Recovery.

  • By default, the RegisterAllProvidersIP is now disabled.

  • The FIMService server service throws an exception. The service tries to send the fault to the client if it's necessary and update the request status to Denied.

  • The FIMService server service retries to connect to the database. There are 10 retries with a timeout of 6 seconds, after which the service is terminated if the database isn't available. If the database is available, the service tries to continue processing request.

  • The FIMService server service throws an exception or retries to connect to the database when the server service tries to update its status to Denied if the database isn't available.

  • For the Synchronization service, if a request fails during a sync session (FIM MA import/export) because the FIMService database isn't available, the sync session will stop with Stop Server status (the same error as for FIMSynchronizationService database isn't available).

    Note

    To work around this issue, run (Delta/Full) import, and then continue with the export.

  • In some scenarios, slow SQL Server replication is lagging as this may bring down the service request pipeline.