We're going to implement a new HA SQL server in our environment, mostly to run databases for various System Center 2012 implementations, but also some Sharepoint sites. I can't decide between Failover Clustering or Availability Groups though...
We have two servers, both connect to a SAN. The servers have local disks (for logs/transaction/OS) and can either have their own SAN-disk or share one (for data). Reading the "data" on SQL 2012 Always On I would assume I should go with Failover Clustering where the 2 servers share the SAN-disk data... however, reading further it seems to me that by using Availability Groups instead I can "load balance"/"share the workload" between the 2 servers by having the secondary run heavy reports etc. Is this something that is done automatic or must process specifically do this (i.e. choose which server)?
Typically in a failover cluster only one server ever does anything, while the other is on standby... I think we could benefit from having both servers "share" the work...