SQL server Database Mirroring
There are 3 types Database Mirroring Operating Modes: High Availability, High Protection and High Performance.
When database mirroring is used for high availability, if a principal server suddenly fails, if the mirror server has confirmation from the witness, it can automatically take on the role of principal and make its database available within a few seconds.But it need additional server called witness server.
In High Protection operating mode only a manual failover is possible, because there is no witness to fill the tie-breaker role. An automatic failover is not possible, because if the principal server fails, the mirror server has no witness server with which to form a quorum.
Client-side Redirect
In SQL Server 2005, if you connect to a database that is being mirrored with ADO.NET or the SQL Native Client, your application can take advantage of the drivers' ability to automatically redirect connections when a database mirroring failover occurs. You must specify the initial principal server and database in the connection string, and optionally the failover partner server.
For example, specifying server A as the principal, server B as the mirror, and AdventureWorks as the database name:
"Data Source=A;Failover Partner=B;Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;Integrated Security=True;"
The failover partner in the connection string is used as an alternate server name if the connection to the initial principal server fails. If the connection to the initial principal server succeeds, then the failover partner name will not be used, but the driver will store the failover partner name that it retrieves from the principal server on the client-side cache.If a client is successfully connected to the principal, and a database mirroring failover (automatic, manual, or forced) occurs. The next time the application attempts to use the connection, the ADO.NET or SQL Native Client driver will detect that the connection to the old principal has failed, and will automatically retry connecting to the new principal as specified in the failover partner name. If successful, and there is a new mirror server specified for the database mirroring session by the new principal, the driver will retrieve the new partner failover server name and place it in its client cache. If the client cannot connect to the alternate server, the driver will try each server alternately until the login timeout period is reached.
The great advantage of using the database mirroring support built into ADO.NET and the SQL Native Client driver is that we do not need to recode the application, or place special code in the application, to handle a database mirroring failover.
For additional information
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917680.aspx
In SQL Server 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2 Database Mirroring works at the individual database level. One challenge to using database mirroring is to keep your important SQL Agent jobs enabled or disabled depending on a database's current mirroring role. If a database is acting as a Principal, you will want the SQL Agent jobs associated with that database to be enabled, while if it is acting as a Mirror, you will want to disable the SQL Agent jobs associated with that database. This does not happen automatically without a little bit of preparation.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlcat/archive/2010/04/01/using-sql-agent-job-categories-to-automate-sql-agent-job-enabling-with-database-mirroring.aspx
