Building AlwaysOn Availability Groups
To create an AlwaysOn Availability Group, you need the following:
Windows Server Failover Cluster (WSFC)
Enable AlwaysOn Availability Groups on each instance
An IP address for the listener
Windows Server Failover Cluster
In order to make use of SQL Server Availability Groups, you need Windows Server Failover Cluster. The SQL Server instances will be standalone instances, and it is important to understand that AlwaysOn Availability Groups are not SQL Server clustering. In order to make use of the automatic failover and client redirection, the servers that will act as replicas in your configuration will need to be part of Windows Server Failover Cluster. This is not as traumatic as it sounds. There is no need for shared storage, we are not clustering the SQL Server instance, and clustering since Windows Server 2008 R2 is pretty painless to configure. If you are a DBA in a relatively large organization, there is a high possibility that you won't have the permissions...
