Prerequisite:
- Three instances of SQL Server 2005 as a Principal, Mirror and Witness instance.
- Make sure that each instance has same service account. Ex. In domain environment create a account domain\SQLService and assign it as an service account for each Server instance and SQL Server Agent. and assign connect and sysadmin roles for each instance to the domain\SQLService account.
- Take full database and transaction log backup of database.
- Restore that backup(Database and Transaction Log) on Mirror server instance with no recovery option.
- Start SQL Server Management Studio 2005.
- Connect to the Principal instance using domain\SQLService account.
- Right click on database and goto Task->Mirroring.
- On the mirroring dialog select Configure Security.
- On the security dialog select Witness Instance check box and click Next.
- Choose Principal server instance and click connect. Enter port no, default will work. and Enter Endpoint name.
- Check encrypt data option for secure data transmission between Principal and Mirror server instance. Click next.
- Now choose mirror server instance and click connect using same domain account which we have created for Mirroring. Enter port no and Endpoint name. Click Next.
- Now finally choose witness server instance and click connect as we did for mirror instance. Enter port no and Endpoint name. Click next.
- On the next screen it will ask for account information as we are using same account for each server instance no need to enter details just click Finish.
- All done it will configure each instance and ask you to start mirroring click on Start Mirroring.