I have site deployed on Azure. I am using Cloud Services, Storage, SQL Database.
I want to have High Availability and Disaster Recovery for our Azure Website.
My question is that how can we provide this feature on Azure? Is it already managed by Azure or we need to use any services from Azure for the same.
Thanks in Advance
Well, I don't think DR is needed, since everything you use is PaaS Service, so if you trust Azure - it will handle everything for you, if you don't. Well, if you don't it won't help you ;)
So, in my opinion best way to achieve what you are looking for is using build-in HA for Cloud Services (increase instance count), while Storage and Azure SQL are HA by design.
If you really-really want DR, you can implement Traffic Manager with extra copy of your Cloud Service in another Azure region and implement Storage Replication and Azure SQL Replication.
I won't be giving link to documentation, as all of those are found in under 5 minutes in and search engine.
Related
I'm looking at creating a web app in portal azure but I came across this option. Create Web App + Database.
My question is if I select the DB engine to be SQL Azure. How big is the database?
Also, what's the difference between the Basic and Standard hosting plans?
Thanks in advance.
How big is the database?
The SQLAzure option refers to the Serverless Azure SQL Database offering. Source
Like most of Azure's managed SQL offerings, it scales up based on how much data you throw at it over time, but it appears the limit for storage is 2TB. Source
Also, what's the difference between the Basic and Standard hosting plans?
This is pretty explicitly addressed on the App Service Pricing page. Among other differences, the Standard plan comes with more disk space for your app and supports auto-scaling of the underlying resources.
I have 3 applications deployed to Azure Service Fabric via ARM template. The only items that have been identified as needing to be backed up are some resources. They include a central blob storage, about 5 SQL databases, and the key vault. The cluster and apps can be redeployed right away via the template.
Searching for backup solutions, I'm seeing a lot of info on backups for services, but not for specific resources like I have here. Can anyone point me to the right direction/sample code on how to do this or is it even an option?
Ok so, storage cannot be backed up using Azure services. You have to créate a program\script that will do that for you.
For the keyvault you can use this powershell cmdlet.
For the SQL there are a bunch of ways to do that, but perhaps you can settle with the built-in backup, which happens automatically and goes 7-35 days back (depending on your tier)
My application is running on Azure PaaS (BLOB Storage, Azure SQL, Web App)
One of my clients requires having the sql database and storage account to be on his premises.
What is the best topography you would recommend? is there a way to replicate the BLOB storage in real-time?
How can I assert high availability knowing that his SQL and his Storage are subject for failure?
Unfortunately there isn't a 1:1 on-premise equivalent of either Azure blobs or Azure web apps. Specifically for SQL DB, you can use SQL Server in it's place.
I hope this helps.
One of my clients requires having the sql database and storage account
to be on his premises.
SQL Database is easy. It is just replacing the connection string.
Storage is tricky. You might be able to modify local storage emulator, and allow access from outside, but I have never tried it.
Your application will be quite slow, since it has to access SQL and Storage from on-premise. My thought will be to host it on-premise where all resources are there.
I know that by default geo-replicate is turned on for the azure service. However it only does so between two places within the same region. E.g. if I have chosen North Europe, the geo-replicate will be located in West Europe. Is it possible to so that I have the replication in US instead?
I want to make service such that my database can be located in two or more regions, such that the response time when accessing the database will be minimal. That is for a user in US he will access the database replica in US, while or a European user he will access the replica in Europe.
First, you should know that geo replication is turned on for Azure STORAGE service, not for any other Azure services yet. Then, you shall also be aware that this geo-replication is for disaster recovery mainly (and only as of today).
If you have to replicate a DB (Windows Azure SQL Database, a.k.a. WASD) you can use the SQL Data Sync - the only known way as of today to sync Azure Databases (either between different geo regions, or between Azure and on-premises).
There is not support for Windows Azure Cloud Service geo-replication. If you need to geographically distribute your application, you have to manage cloud service deployment across different data centers on your own.
If this is the case, for Azure storage, I would suggest using a single Storage service for WRITE operations, but Azure CDN for READ operations. Otherwise it might get too complicated. Of course the chosen architectural approach will depend on the requirements of the app (and expected load).
Then, you have to combine the different deployments with Azure Traffic Manager with a "Performance" algorithm setup.
EDIT (NOV 2014)
As of Q3 2014, Azure SQL Database also support Geo Replication. And Azure Data Sync is depricated and removed service. Azure Storage replication continue to be offered with 3 different flavours: Zone redundant, Geo redundant, Geo redundant with Read Access.
And still no option to replicate between Geographic Regions (i.e. from EU to US). Replication is still only an option between Geo Zone pairs (same geography).
I believe this is not possible today out of the box. You would need to do that on your own using data sync (for SQL Azure) and similar technologies (for Windows Azure Storage).
Why do we link an azure storage account to a cloud service? How does it help? What happens if I do not link them?
Two reasons:
Easier management - you have better idea of what is your overall configuration for a particular deployment
Easier management - upon deleting a resource you are being asked whether you want to delete the linked resources also
By the way, you can also link a Windows Azure SQL Database to a Cloud Service.
The whole idea is to help you better manage the services. There is no other reason and nothing will happen if you do not link. But think a bit - if you manage 3 subscriptions, 2 cloud services deployments each, 2 storage accounts per deployment. That is 6 cloud services, 12 storage accounts. Can you easily tell which service is using which account?
The cloud service depends on the storage account. When deploying the cloud service it will create a container called vsdeploy with a block blob that is used for the VMs it creates.
It also stores crash dump files there as well under the container wad-crashdumps. The folder structure is WAD{GUID}{worker role}{instance}. Then it will store all the .dmp files as block blobs.