KB Issue
This article will show you how to change the Primary Listener in SQL Server Management Studios Always On Availability Group.
Issue Details
This article will show how to perform a failover within the Always On Availability Group (AOAG). This is required with performing maintenance or if a SQL Server instance is having an issue, and you want to take it offline before it causes significant problems without your AOAG.
Recreate Issue
In our network, we have a maintenance server that we fail over to when we take down our primary server, a [Dell r710]. The maintenance server's SQL Server instance is a part of the SQL Server AOAG. Since this SQL Server is part of the AOAG, we can stay online without displaying a maintenance banner on our websites.
The maintenance server has nowhere near the power of the [Dell r710]; it keeps us online while we improve our servers for the future.
Resolve Issue
The built-in Wizard to failover to a new SQL Server primary is more straightforward than the standard method.
The method described below enables a quicker, simpler failover.
  1. In SSMS, expand the SQL Server Listener Server. Example: [MyAOAGListener,2433]
  2. Right-click [Always On High Availability]
  3. Choose [Show dashboard]
  4. When the Dashboard opens, on the top list of [Availability replica:]
  5. Click the SQL Server Instance to fail over to.
    6. Once the page opens, from the top-left corner.
  6. Choose [Start Failover Wizard]
  7. This method will only select the chosen server for failover.
    Follow the wizard to failover the chosen SQL Server instance.