Existing users of Windows Azure are all praise for its near perfect up-time, cloud performance, easy scalability, windows server/Linux Adaptability, language adaptability, disaster recovery features and several other credible attributes. Azure launched SQL Database Geo-replication last year and have continued to improve its performance ever since. Take a look at the latest improvements.
T-SQL support
Azure now allows users to use T-SQL to configure geo-replication. They can even use it to configure initiate fail over. Though, these commands need SQL authentication, they do not require a shared subscription certificate unlike cmdlets (PowerShell).
DR Drills
When users give a fail over command in planned mode, DR Drills switch from secondary database role to primary database role once the data synchronizes. Now, there is no data loss, and users can implement DR Drills for disaster recovery.
Synchronized Credentials and Firewall Rules
Using database firewall rules is the right way for geo-replicated databases to implement the rules for secondary databases as well. Customers would no longer have to maintain firewall rules on servers when hosting two databases.
Performance Level of Secondary Database: Now Configurable
You can adjust the performance levels of the primary and secondary databases. It means, the second database no longer needs to perform on the same level as the primary one. However, it is better not to try this for the applications with high write activity as it may increase lag time. Also, post-performance fail over would take a toll till you increase the primary database’s performance until you upgrade it to a higher level.
APIs that Support Role Based security
Users now have access to a new Azure Resource Manager (ARM) APIs for better management. The new APIs demand more resource groups to support role based security (RBAC).
Synchronous PowerShell
The new ARM-based PowerShell cmdlets support synchronous execution by default. When users are using fail over commands and geo-replication together, they don’t need to monitor their advancements. This is beneficial considering the fact that these operations could run for a long time.
Many Cloud Server users prefer windows or at least realize that finding a reliable cloud windows server is necessary to provide proper support to their operations. Azure has helped them a great deal and with these new set of updates for its SQL Database geo-replication.