I have AG group setup with one secondary that is in a different geolocation/subnets. The primary is on a named instance and secondary is default instance.  Here is the scenerio:

Primary: SQLServer2

Secondary: SQLServer1\Instance1

The issue is that I can't connect to SQLServer\Instance1 using the instance name from the SQLServer2. I can however connect if I specify the tcp port number instead of the instance name. As a result I am not able to effectively manage the AG from SQLServer2.  So I am doing everything from SQLServer\Instance1.

To rectify this, I need to remove the SQLServer\Instance1 and add it back using the port number SQLServer, xxxx.

So I am looking for opinions/thoughts. Is this doable and if so what is the damage/downside?

I do not have a readily available dev/test at the moment.

Connecting by instance name requires the remote server to have the SQL Browser service started and UDP port 1434 open in the firewall. Please see here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023.aspx

Go to ports used by database engine

Hi HBuddy,

In addition to other post, please perform the script in this blog to detect primary replica ownership. If SQLServer\Instance1 acts as Primary replica, it can be removed from an availability group.

However, when SQLServer\Instance1 acts as Secondary replica, you can follow the instruction in this article to remove the replica if needed. Then you can add the replica back into the availability group without re-initializing the databases so long as the transaction log has not been truncated. For more details about how to add Secondary replica back into group, please review this blog.

Thanks,
Lydia