We have a SQL 2012 cluster. We would like to start using AGs in order to offload the reporting.
Can we add another SQL instance (on another node added to the Windows cluster) and use as read-only reporting? We are not interested in using the secondary replica as a HA or DR solution. We already have another SQL cluster for DR.
Do not want the secondary replica to ever become the primary, how would this be done?
By specifying manual/forced failover?
Could existing connection strings still use the virtual name of the exiting SQL cluster and the reporting requests have a connection string specifiying the Listener name and application-intent=read-only specified?
Also wondering if it is possible to cluster the instance that will be used for the secondary replica?