Azure SQL Database: High Availability and Performance
Question
A company plans to use Azure SQL Database to support a mission-critical application.
The application must be highly available without performance degradation during maintenance windows.
You need to implement the solution.
Which three technologies should you implement? Each correct answer presents part of the solution.
NOTE: Each correct selection is worth one point.
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D. E. F.AEF
A: Premium/business critical service tier model that is based on a cluster of database engine processes. This architectural model relies on a fact that there is always a quorum of available database engine nodes and has minimal performance impact on your workload even during maintenance activities.
E: In the premium model, Azure SQL database integrates compute and storage on the single node. High availability in this architectural model is achieved by replication of compute (SQL Server Database Engine process) and storage (locally attached SSD) deployed in 4-node cluster, using technology similar to SQL
Server Always On Availability Groups.
F: Zone redundant configuration -
By default, the quorum-set replicas for the local storage configurations are created in the same datacenter. With the introduction of Azure Availability Zones, you have the ability to place the different replicas in the quorum-sets to different availability zones in the same region. To eliminate a single point of failure, the control ring is also duplicated across multiple zones as three gateway rings (GW).
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-high-availabilityTo implement a highly available solution for a mission-critical application on Azure SQL Database without performance degradation during maintenance windows, the following three technologies should be implemented:
A. Premium service tier: Azure SQL Database provides multiple service tiers, including Basic, Standard, and Premium. The Premium service tier is designed for high-end database workloads that require the highest performance, scalability, and availability. It supports more powerful hardware and provides more features, including In-Memory OLTP and Columnstore indexes, which can significantly improve performance. Therefore, to ensure high availability without performance degradation, the Premium service tier should be used.
E. Always On availability groups: Azure SQL Database supports Always On availability groups, which provide high availability and disaster recovery for mission-critical workloads. With Always On availability groups, you can create multiple read-only replicas of your primary database, which can be used for reporting, backups, or failover in case of a disaster. Always On availability groups also provide automatic failover, which means that if the primary database becomes unavailable, one of the replicas will automatically take over. This feature helps ensure that the application remains highly available without performance degradation during maintenance windows.
F. Zone-redundant configuration: Zone-redundant configuration is an Azure SQL Database feature that replicates data across multiple availability zones within a region, providing high availability and disaster recovery in case of a zone-level failure. This feature is essential for mission-critical workloads that require maximum uptime and data protection. With zone-redundant configuration, you can ensure that your data is always available and accessible, even in the event of a disaster.
Therefore, to implement a highly available solution for a mission-critical application on Azure SQL Database without performance degradation during maintenance windows, you should use the Premium service tier, Always On availability groups, and zone-redundant configuration.
