Took a few times too, all your ducks really need to be in a row. One thing I missed is turning off SQL Agent, which I needed to do since I have transaction log back ups every hour, and the process of a full backup, copy, restore takes close to that...

SQL 2005 Database Mirroring Tutorial:

Forget about Windows Authentication or Domain Account.....   just use Certificates is good enough.

 

What you need is:

- 2 Servers and 1 Witness

- Create a database on Principal Server

- Backup the database 2 times: 1st time do a "FULL" backup, 2nd time do a "Transaction Log" backup

- Restore the database on Mirror Server, MUST use option "NO RECOVERY" !!! After restore, the mirror database will not take any request, that is completely normal.

- Fully Qualified Domain Name for all 3 servers.....  you can do this by: 1. Setup a domain, or 2. Change the computer name and modify the "HOSTS" file on the 3 servers (C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc)

 

OK ! Now we shall start!

 

HOST A = Principal Server

HOST B = Mirror Server

HOST W = Witness Server

 

You need to copy the certificate between the servers manually.