MS SQL 2005 mirroring howto

My experience so far has been with setting up MS SQL 2005 mirroring under windows workgroups (not domains). The SQL servers did not have FQDNs. The database I was trying to setup was configured with "simple" recovery model.

Although the following worked for me, not every step may be necessary and the below is not necessarily the recommended method of achieving mirroring or setting up SQL Server:

1. I had the latest service pack for SQL server 2005 on both servers.

2. Modify the recovery model to "FULL". Then I modified a couple of records in the database to make sure there is something in the transaction logs.

3. Perform a full backup of principal and restored on mirror server.

4. Perform a transaction log backup and restore onto mirror server.

5. Both SQL server and the SQL Server Agent services on both the principal and mirror server are running as the same windows user with the same password. I made this windows user part of the Administrators group on both servers.

6. On the last page of the mirroring configuration wizard, click on "do not start mirroring". This will take you to the parent window where you can replace the Server Network Address for both your principal and mirror servers with the IP address rather than database name.

7. Everything else was either very obvious or I left as default.

Once I did the above tasks, then I clicked on start mirroring and everything just started working.