If you’ve been playing with SQL Server “Denali” AlwaysOn, you probably have seen the new PowerShell cmdlets for managing the new AlwaysOn feature. However, as SQL Server 2012 RC0 has been made available for download, you need to watch out for these “breaking changes” for AlwaysOn (I call them breaking changes because if you are using PowerShell scripts to automate AlwaysOn configuration, your scripts would no longer work.)

With SQL Server “Denali” CTP3, you may have used cmdlets like *-SqlHadrService to enable the AlwaysOn features across all instances that you join in your availability group.

Starting with SQL Server 2012 RC0, these have now been converted to *-SqlAlwaysOn.

So be sure to update those PowerShell scripts before you run them for testing to make sure you don’t waste your time trying to figure out what went wrong. And if you haven’t downloaded SQL Server 2012 RC0 yet, make sure you do so and get your hands dirty trying out the latest bits.

And since we’re already on the topic of SQL Server 2012, you also might want to catch my webcast on AlwaysOn Availability Groups on 30-Nov-2011. You can register for the webcast thru this URL.