Greetings. I've been doing some research on using an AG for a migration from one data center to another, separated by 800 miles. Seems doable if the pipe in between can keep up.
However, something I keep reading about is folks having an AG in one DC (both Primary and one Secondary), then a second Secondary in another DC. So 3 nodes in total.
This would make sense if my plan was to leave this up and running for the long term, but I it's not. My plan is to have this up for a short time (like a month, then get rid of it).
That said, is having 2 nodes in my current DC a real requirement? Or instead can I just have my Primary in the current DC, and the Secondary in the DC we're migrating to?
I plan on running this in aSync mode, withOUT auto failover. I realize the risk here is that if my Primary tanks it would take some manual intervention to failover, but are there any other risks associated w this?
Edit:
Another question. It looks like 2016 now allows AG's to be ran in Standard Edition. Can one node be Enterprise and one node be Standard?
Thanks!
Thanks in advance! ChrisRDBA