Mirroring and log shipping together We are using SQL Mirroring as an HA solution and Log Shipping as a DR solution.

Recently, the mirror database has been configured as a log shipping primary (the mirror/primary database) to allow log shipping to continue after database mirroring fails over, using the same configuration we used for the primary on the principal database.

Now the problem is every so often the restore job fails due to:


  Exclusive access could not be obtained because the database is in use.


This is because two restore jobs (one from principal/Primary, and one from the mirror/primary) start at the same time. I have changed the job schedules to be run at different times, however. 

For example, the restore job from the principal/Primary is scheduled for every 13 minutes and the restore job from mirror/Primary is scheduled for every 10 minutes. But there are still some times that they start at the same time. 

Is there any way to prevent this?
Conditionally restore based on which job is running on the principle

If I understand you correctly, I would think that the primary mirror should be the one doing the restoring. If this is the case I would modify your job(s) like so:

if ((select mirroring_role from sys.database_mirroring where db_name(&lt;database id&gt;) = '&lt;database name&gt;') = 1) 
    Restore Database XYZ from disk = 'C:\XYZ.bak'


Not knowing your full setup, I "would think" both servers could run this job and it wouldn't matter which job got there first or the timing of the jobs.

Note:

A mirroring_role of 1 signifies the principle whereas a mirroring role of 2 signifies the secondary role.

Edit based on your comment:

If you'd rather keep your jobs "as is", even though one of them sounds redundant, just stack them together in one job with two job steps. If the first step fails, execute the second step. But if the first job step succeeds, don't run the second job step. 

I still think conditionally restoring is your best bet, but I'd have to see your job code on both servers to know exactly what your doing. Having both jobs compete to restore the same database doesn't sound like the very best of plans to me.