Manage Azure SQL Database: Overview

This section provides a comprehensive overview of how to manage Azure SQL Database. Azure SQL Database is a fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) database engine that handles most database management functions such as upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement.

Key Management Areas

Managing Azure SQL Database involves several key areas, each crucial for ensuring performance, security, and availability of your data.

1. Provisioning and Configuration

When you create an Azure SQL Database, you'll need to configure several settings:

  • Service Tier: Choose between General Purpose, Business Critical, or Hyperscale based on your performance and availability needs.
  • Compute Size: Select the appropriate vCores or DTUs to match your workload.
  • Storage: Configure the size and type of storage for your database.
  • Networking: Set up firewall rules, private endpoints, and virtual network service endpoints for secure access.

2. Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Maintaining optimal performance is vital. Azure SQL Database offers various tools:

  • Azure Portal: Provides dashboards with key performance metrics like CPU, I/O, and memory usage.
  • Query Performance Insight: Identifies performance bottlenecks by analyzing top resource-consuming queries.
  • Intelligent Insights: Automatically detects and resolves performance issues.
  • Automatic tuning: Recommends and can automatically apply query performance improvements.

3. Security Management

Security is paramount. Azure SQL Database offers robust security features:

  • Authentication and Authorization: Supports Azure Active Directory authentication, SQL authentication, and granular permissions.
  • Network Security: Firewalls, Virtual Network service endpoints, and Private Link for secure connectivity.
  • Threat Detection: Advanced threat protection identifies and responds to suspicious activities.
  • Encryption: Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) encrypts data at rest, and Always Encrypted can protect sensitive data from applications.

4. Backup and Restore

Azure SQL Database provides automated backups and flexible restore options:

  • Automated Backups: Full, differential, and transaction log backups are performed automatically.
  • Point-in-Time Restore (PITR): Restore your database to any point in time within your defined retention period.
  • Geo-restore: Restore from geo-replicated backups to a different region for disaster recovery.
  • Long-Term Retention (LTR): Store backups for longer periods as needed for compliance.
Note: Understanding your application's workload and performance requirements is key to effective management. Regularly review performance metrics and security configurations.

5. High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Azure SQL Database is designed for high availability:

  • Redundancy: Built-in redundancy ensures your database is available even if underlying hardware fails.
  • Geo-Replication: Create readable secondary databases in different regions for disaster recovery or to offload read workloads.
  • Failover Groups: Manage the replication and failover of a group of databases across different Azure regions.

6. Cost Management

Optimize your spending by choosing the right service tier and compute size, and by utilizing features like auto-scaling where applicable.

This overview provides a starting point for managing your Azure SQL Database. For detailed instructions and advanced configurations, please refer to the specific topics within this documentation.

Further Reading