referencing a failover datasource if primary DB server is down?

[Guest]

My scenario is that I have two webservers/database servers that I'm trying
to make redundant in terms of filesystems, web services, and database
services:
+ filesystems are replicated using server 2003 R2
+ web services are made redundant using NLB
+ databases are mirrored via SQL Server 2005 database mirroring.

I have ASP.NET and ASP applications that consult the database. These
applications are being mirrored by virtue of the fact that the filesystems
between the two servers are being mirrored. What I need to figure out is the
cleanest way to set up things so that my apps will initially try to
reference database server "A" for its data needs, and if that doesn't work,
to attempt to contact database server "B". Remember that the databases will
be exactly mirrored on both boxes, so no aspect of the DB schema should
change.

Is this capability built into any aspect of ASP.NET's data provider model?
For any fellow Classic ASP dinosaurs (freshly paid from MSFT's "Office has
evolved..have you" campaign , can someone suggest a clean workaround in
classic ASP?

Thanks,

Ken Fine
University of Washington

 

[Guest]

Googling around a bit, I found the answer I wanted for ASP.NET. Still trying
to figure out something clean and automatic in classic ASP. See here for
information on ASP.NET:

The .NET Data Provider for SQL Server provides implicit support for
database mirroring, so that the developer does not need to take any action
or write any code once it has been configured for a SQL Server 2005
database. In addition, the SqlConnection object supports supplying the name
of a failover partner server in the ConnectionString.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5h52hef8.aspx

If anyone has good ideas about how to hack something together for classic
ASP, please suggest. I'd like the failover to be automatic.

-KF