October 22, 2015 at 6:48 am
We have a new project coming here that a consulting group is desiging that will be in Azure.. our first trip to the cloud... They are recommending a SQL Cluster in Azure... I have seen a few demos and began to read about Azure but I have seen nothing about clustering in Azure. I guess my question is why cluster? Isn't Azure really a VM that is basically 99.9% available?
How are people in Azure doing SQL backups? We are thinking of using our SQL Server backup solution here and just backing up from Azure down to here. The dbs are not going to be very big.
October 22, 2015 at 7:09 am
It requires some work to get the so-called 99.99% availability. For SQL Azure VMs you will need to use the concept of an availability set and roll your own DR solution like AlwaysOn. For backups I have used the 2014 feature of "Smart" backup to Azure blob storage.
October 22, 2015 at 8:24 am
What they're recommending is Azure virtual machines. That's why a cluster for high availability. Actually though, I'm not sure I'd do that. Instead, if you're moving into this space, why not go all the way and use Availability Groups instead of a cluster. You can do these through Azure VMs just as easily and the technology is a lot more advanced.
The other Azure structured storage option is Azure SQL Database. They're good and include built-in high availability plus the possibility of global distributed failover and a bunch of other stuff. However, migrations to Azure SQL Database is a little tougher since it's a Platform as a Service and doesn't offer the full SQL Server experience that a VM does. Most people could move most databases to SQL Database, but not all. Not seeing what your systems look like, I wouldn't make a recommendation one way or another. I would suggest exploring them though. They offer quite a lot less maintenance overhead vs. VMs.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
October 22, 2015 at 8:34 am
They are suggesting VM Clustering for SQL2014 Ent. Edition AND Always On.... 😀
October 23, 2015 at 2:06 am
As Grant mentioned why not consider SQL Database? "They offer quite a lot less maintenance overhead vs. VMs"
Unless there is a specific feature you guys need.
October 23, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Markus (10/22/2015)
They are suggesting VM Clustering for SQL2014 Ent. Edition AND Always On.... 😀
It may be that they mean the cluster service, which you have to have for Availability Groups. I'm not sure I'd both with a cluster now that we have AG. I'd have to consult with some friends on that.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
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