Azure Local for SQL Server
Azure Local provides a robust foundation for Microsoft’s DBaaS platform and streamlines the Azure hybrid Cloud experience for both data centres and edge deployments. Azure Kubernetes Service Hybrid (AKS Hybrid) is core to the DBaaS features and is available and ready to use by default. This enables virtual machines or container-based workloads to be deployed directly via the Azure Portal.AKS also supports the deployment of Managed SQL and PostgreSQL Hyperscale instances via self-service provisioning (again, through the Azure Portal), dramatically reducing the administrative burden of deploying and maintaining SQL and PostgreSQL databases and providing ever-green service. This approach combines the best of public Cloud with the predictable cost, performance, and low-latency client connectivity afforded by data centre and edge deployments.
SQL Server Managed Instances combine the most widely used relational database, Microsoft SQL Server, with the declarative capability of Kubernetes containerisation.Enabling Azure data services on Azure Local only requires the deployment of a data controller to an AKS Hybrid workload cluster, which then provides the automated orchestration of provisioning, scaling, high availability and disaster recovery, and lifecycle management of the deployed SQL Server Managed instances.Deployed in this way, SQL Servers gain the benefits of elasticity, instant provisioning, and ever-green status, exactly as they would when deployed in Azure public Cloud. This dramatically reduces IT and developers’ workloads, whilst DBAs retain access to existing toolsets - such as SQL Server Management Studio or Azure Data Studio - for daily operations and tuning activities.
When deploying Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instances, two service tiers are available:
General Purpose - In this model, database availability is provided by the AKS hybrid layer using a single stateful set and Azure Local Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) for persistent storage. As a result, databases are automatically recovered, for example in the event that a node fails, on a surviving node.
Business Critical - Providing continuously available databases SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, this model deploys up to three replicas across the cluster. Replicas can also be used for read-only applications, achieving performance scalability for reporting applications.
In either case, the deployment and ongoing platform management are fully automated and when deployed at the Business Critical tier, scaling out instances and resizing storage can be done online, without any downtime.
