Tips on creating Azure policies for Azure SQL Databases

Azure SQL Databases is quite a big service and it is also one of the oldest. Because of these two there are a few architectural designs that you should be aware. Some of these are:

  • with every SQL logical server there is a master database resource that is created. This resource is not directly managed but for example when you configure diagnostic settings on server level you need to configure those against the master database resource rather the SQL logical server
  • The SKUs of Azure SQL Databases are mostly divided into DTU and vCore based. Among the vCore based we also have Hyperscale and Serverless variants. You can also have elastic pools for some SKUs and than the databases under those elastic pools inherit their SKUs. Not all Azure SQL SKUs support all of the features of the service. Some of the features that may not be available or have some limitations across different SKUs are:
    • Zone redundancy
    • Hybrid benefit
    • Read replicas
    • Failover Group support – for example not supported on Hyperscale SKUs and supported on Serverless SKUs only auto pause delay is disabled
    • Geo replication
    • Short term backup
    • Long term backup

Among these we also have Datawarehouses (now known as Azure Synapse Analytics) which underneath are the same resource as Azure SQL databases but have completely different options.

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Tracking Issues with Resource Health and Log Analytics

I have been away from blogging for a while as I needed to dedicate some more time to my family but now I am back with new blog post. Today’s topic we will focus on two Azure Monitor features – Resource Health and Log Analytics. Resource Health is may be not so known feature of Azure Monitor. The service will basically track the health of your resources for specific known issues. Think of it like something between Service Health which monitors health for specific services rather resources on higher level and Log Analytics/Application Insights which allows you to monitor on lower level. Using all of them you can achieve end-to-end monitoring. There are a number of resources that are supported by resource health with a number of issues that are monitored. My advise is if you do not have any monitoring on an Azure resource you should at least create resource health alerts for it. Even if you have monitoring I would still advise to use resource health as it will alert you on things that you probably cannot or your are not checking with your monitoring.

Continue reading “Tracking Issues with Resource Health and Log Analytics”

Inside Azure Management Virtual Summit Recordings

In case you couldn’t catch the Inside Azure Management Virtual Summit live we have now uploaded the recordings. You can check them out at Inside Azure Management YouTube channel. Enjoy the free content.

Speaking at Inside Azure Management Virtual Summit

As you know we recently have released the fourth edition of Inside Azure Management book. What is better then free book? – A free book and free virtual summit. Yes that is right we are organizing a free virtual summit titled Inside Azure Management. I must say the actual organization is mainly led by Peter Zerger so once again I would like to thank him for his efforts. The virtual summit will take place on 23rd of July. If you want to register you can check the official web site of the event. You will find some interesting sessions and speakers that you might not see so much on other events. I will be delivering a session titled "Exploring Configuration Management in Azure" which will focus on showing you the different configuration management options within Azure with focus on Azure Policy and Azure Resource Manager Deployments.

It is also important to say that if you like the summit and you want to help people you can check one of the causes we are supporting with this event.

Enjoy the summit!!!

Inside Azure Management V4 Book Now Available

The time has come to publish the Inside Azure Management v4 book. This is the only free book that focuses on Azure Management. If you want you can also support us with purchase from Amazon. Links for both the free and purchasable version you will find below. It is needless to say that the authors of this book Pete Zerger, Tao Yang and Kevin Greene and me have put a lot of effort. Additionally also Ryan Irujo, Alexandre Verkinderen and Bert Wolters have put also a lot of effort in authoring of certain chapters. I would like to thank to all authors for the great work. Comparing v3 to v4 release we have tried to make the existing content better with providing even more examples. Overall we have followed the same guidance as before: trying to give you less content that is already available and focus on tips, tricks, scenarios and examples. Any feedback you can send it to us via e-mail: insidemscloud (at) outlook.com. I hope that you will enjoy our work and you will find it useful.

Free download

Amazon

Code repository