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Difficulty: Very hardBlob, File, and Disk Storage Solutions

An organization is designing a high-availability SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) hosted on Azure Virtual Machines. The VMs are distributed across Zone 1 and Zone 2 in the East US region.

The storage solution for the FCI database files must meet the following requirements:
- Must be a shared block storage volume that can be attached to all cluster nodes concurrently using SCSI persistent reservations.
- Must survive an availability zone failure with zero data loss (Recovery Point Objective (RPO) = 0).
- Must support sub-millisecond read and write latencies for database transactions.
- Must allow administrative teams to scale storage capacity, IOPS, and throughput independently and dynamically without taking the disks offline or restarting the virtual machines.

Which storage configuration should you recommend?

  1. Premium SSD v2 configured with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS)Answer
  2. B
    Ultra Disk configured with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS)
  3. C
    Premium SSD configured with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS)
  4. D
    Premium SSD v2 configured with Locally Redundant Storage (LRS)

Answer

Premium SSD v2 configured with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS)
Premium SSD v2 configured with Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) satisfies all requirements. It supports shared disks via SCSI persistent reservations, provides sub-millisecond latencies, and allows capacity, IOPS, and throughput to be scaled independently and dynamically without downtime. Additionally, its ZRS configuration replicates data synchronously across three availability zones in the region, ensuring zero data loss (RPO = 0) in the event of a zone outage.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Evaluate the cluster requirement for shared block storage with SCSI persistent reservations.
Premium SSD, Premium SSD v2, and Ultra Disk support Azure Shared Disks. Standard SSD and Standard HDD do not support this cluster configuration.
The database FCI requires raw shared block storage that supports SCSI persistent reservations to coordinate active/passive failover.
2
Assess the availability zone resilience requirement (RPO = 0 during a zone failure).
The storage must support Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS) for synchronous replication across zones. Ultra Disk only supports Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) and is eliminated.
LRS does not replicate data across availability zones, making it vulnerable to zone outages and failing the RPO = 0 zone-resilience requirement.
3
Analyze the performance scalability requirements (independent and dynamic adjustment of IOPS, throughput, and capacity).
Premium SSD v2 allows independent adjustments of capacity, IOPS, and throughput without downtime. Premium SSD (v1) requires disk resizing to scale performance because IOPS and throughput are locked to size tiers.
Only Premium SSD v2 satisfies both the ZRS requirement and the ability to scale capacity, IOPS, and throughput independently and dynamically.

Key Concept

Shared disk options and performance tiers in Azure Disk Storage
Estimated Time:3m 0s
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Topics

Blob, File, and Disk Storage Solutions

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