About Professional Azure SQL Managed Database Administration, Third Edition

Despite being the cloud version of SQL Server, Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance stands out in various aspects when it comes to management, maintenance, and administration. Updated with the latest Azure features, Professional Azure SQL Managed Database Administration continues to be a comprehensive guide for becoming proficient in data management.

The book begins by introducing you to the Azure SQL managed databases (Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance), explaining their architecture, and how they differ from an on-premises SQL server. You will then learn how to perform common tasks, such as migrating, backing up, and restoring a SQL Server database to an Azure database.

As you progress, you will study how you can save costs and manage and scale multiple SQL databases using elastic pools. You will also implement a disaster recovery solution using standard and active geo-replication. Finally, you will explore the monitoring and tuning of databases, the key features of databases, and the phenomenon of app modernization.

By the end of this book, you will have mastered the key aspects of an Azure SQL database and Azure SQL managed instance, including migration, backup restorations, performance optimization, high availability, and disaster recovery.

About the authors

Ahmad Osama works for Pitney Bowes Pvt. Ltd. as a technical architect and is a former Microsoft Data Platform MVP. In his day job, he works on developing and maintaining high performant, on-premises and cloud SQL Server OLTP environments as well as deployment and automating tasks using PowerShell. When not working, Ahmad blogs at DataPlatformLabs and can be found glued to his Xbox.

Shashikant Shakya is a passionate technologist with decades of experience in the sphere of databases. He works for Microsoft as a senior support engineer. In his day job, he works on Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Apart from his work, he is a regular speaker at the SQLBangalore community group.

About the reviewers

Aaditya Pokkunuri is an experienced senior database engineer with a history of working in the information technology and services industry. He has a total of 11 years' experience. He is skilled in performance tuning, MS SQL Database server administration, SSIS, SSRS, Power BI, and SQL development.

He possesses an in-depth knowledge of replication, clustering, SQL Server high availability options, and ITIL processes, as well as expertise in Windows administration tasks, Active Directory, and Microsoft Azure technologies.

He also has expertise in AWS Cloud and is an AWS solution architect associate. Aaditya is a strong information technology professional with a Bachelor of Technology degree focused on computer science and engineering from Sastra University, Tamil Nadu.

John Martin is an experienced data platform professional and Microsoft Data Platform MVP, having spent over a decade working with the Microsoft data and cloud platform technologies. In this time, John has learned how to get the most out of these platforms as well as the key pitfalls that should be avoided.

Learning objectives

• Understanding Azure SQL database configuration and pricing options
• Provisioning a new SQL database or migrating an existing on-premises SQL Server database to an Azure SQL database
• Backing up and restoring an Azure SQL database
• Securing and scaling an Azure SQL database
• Monitoring and tuning an Azure SQL database
• Implementing high availability and disaster recovery with an Azure SQL database
• Managing, maintaining, and securing managed instances

Audience

This book is designed to benefit database administrators, database developers, or application developers who are interested in developing new applications or migrating existing ones with Azure SQL Database.

Prior experience of working with an on-premises SQL server or Azure SQL database, along with a basic understanding of PowerShell scripts and C# code, is necessary to grasp the concepts covered in this book.

Approach

Professional Azure SQL Managed Database Administration is a perfect blend of deep theoretical knowledge and detailed descriptions of implementation techniques and numerous tips that are essential for making its readers ready for real-world challenges. 

Hardware and software requirements

Hardware requirements

For the optimal learning experience, we recommend the following hardware configuration:

• Windows 10/Mac/Linux
• Processor: Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz or higher (or equivalent)
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Hard disk: 10 GB free space
• An internet connection

Software requirements

We also recommend that you have the following software configuration in advance:

• PowerShell 7: https://github.com/PowerShell/powershell/releases
• RML Utilities: https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=4511
• SQL Server Management Studio: https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15
• Power BI Desktop (optional): https://powerbi.microsoft.com/downloads/
• Azure Data Studio: https://docs.microsoft.com/sql/azure-data-studio/download-azure-data-studio?view=sql-server-ver15
• Azure Az PowerShell module: https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/azure/new-azureps-module-az?view=azps-5.2.0

Conventions

Code words in the text, database names, folder names, filenames, and file extensions are shown as follows.

"The query gets the details for the cpu_percent, physical_data_read_percent, log_ write_percent, workers_percent, and sessions_percent metrics."

Here's a sample block of code:

AzureMetrics
| where ResourceProvider=="MICROSOFT.SQL" | where ResourceId contains "/ SERVERS/"
| where ResourceId contains "/DATABASES/" and MetricName in ('cpu_ percent', 'physical_data_read_percent', 'log_write_percent', 'workers_ percent', 'sessions_percent')

Downloading resources

The code bundle for this book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Professional-Azure-SQL-Database-Administration-Third-Edition. Here, you can find the YAML and other files used in this book, which are referred to as relevant instances.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!