SQL Server 2012 database 3 mirroring questions

Question

I've been looking for the answer to these three questions but just cant find a straight answer..

1. When mirroring with a witness, does all three SQL Server editions have to have the same name? I.E at the moment I have 3 servers labeled ABC-SERVER1, ABC-SERVER2, ABC-SERVER3. My main server is called SQL-SERVER3 on server3, would I then have to have the named instance SQL-SERVER3 running on ABC-SERVER2 and 1?

2. If the SQL Server instances don't have to be labeled all the same i.e they can be (SQL ABC-SERVER1), (ABC SQL-SERVER2) etc... If you are using a program for example MS Access and you connect to a server for example server3, how would access know where to go if server3 was offline?

3. As I understand it you can have 2 SQL Server versions running at any one time from the 1 licence, as long as only 1 instance of SQL Server is in use at any one time. To get a witness running I would have to use a SQL Server Express edition or buy another licence, is that correct?

Thanks in advance for taking your time out to read this....

Answer 1

You can use SQL Server Express for the witness.

You only need a single license so long as you never use the mirror server for anything other than a mirror, and only failover at most once in 90 days.

The names of the servers, and the names of the SQL instances are irrelevant.

Access can somewhat automatically use the failover server as long as the connection string for the linked tables uses the SQL Native Client and the correct syntax:

Failover Partner=myMirrorServerAddress;

See http://www.connectionstrings.com for more info.