Pros of Log Shipping
- Relatively speaking, less expensive.
- Relatively speaking, less work to set up.
- Relatively speaking, less on-going maintenance.
- Requires less experienced DBAs and networkadministrators.
Cons of Log Shipping
- Failover is not quick, may take from 15 – 60 minutes or more of downtime.
- Failover is not automatic, it must be manually implemented.
- Failed over server must be renamed to the name of the failed server.
- Failing back to the original server, once it is fixed, is a manual process that can require 15 – 60 minutes or more of downtime.
Pros of Clustering
- Failover is quick, usually resulting in less than minute or two of downtime.
- Failover is automatic, no manual intervention is required.
- Clustering doesn’t require any servers to be renamed.
- Failing back is quick, usually resulting in less than minute or two of downtime.
Cons of Clustering
- More expensive than log shipping.
- Requires more set up than log shipping.
- Requires more on-going maintenance.
- Requires more experienced DBAs and network administrators.