Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardRelational Data Storage Solutions

A company is planning to migrate a legacy on-premises electronic health record (EHR) application to Azure. The relational database for the application has the following requirements:
- Must support SQL Server Agent to run nightly maintenance jobs.
- Must support Database Mail to send automated notifications to administrators.
- Must be deployed into a private, delegated subnet within an Azure Virtual Network.
- In the event of a regional disaster, all database backups must remain available.
- The administrative overhead for managing operating system patching and hardware updates must be minimized.

Which Azure SQL deployment option should you recommend?

  1. A
    Azure SQL Database single database configured with Private Link and zone-redundant storage (ZRS) backups.
  2. Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with geo-redundant storage (GRS) backups.Answer
  3. C
    Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with locally redundant storage (LRS) backups.
  4. D
    SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines using Standard HDD storage for database log files.

Answer

Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with geo-redundant storage (GRS) backups
The option recommending Azure SQL Managed Instance with geo-redundant storage (GRS) backups is correct because it meets all requirements. Azure SQL Managed Instance is a fully managed PaaS service that supports instance-level features such as SQL Server Agent and Database Mail. It runs inside a delegated subnet within a virtual network. Using GRS backups ensures that backups survive a regional disaster while avoiding the administrative overhead of OS patching associated with virtual machines.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze instance-level requirements
SQL Server Agent and Database Mail are instance-level features, meaning that standard Azure SQL Database (single database or elastic pools) cannot meet these requirements natively.
Azure SQL Database does not support instance-level features like SQL Server Agent or Database Mail.
2
Evaluate administrative overhead constraint
SQL Server on Azure VMs is ruled out because it requires manual OS and database engine patching, failing the constraint to minimize administration.
Choosing a PaaS service is necessary to offload OS and engine maintenance to Microsoft.
3
Determine the service tier
Azure SQL Managed Instance is selected because it is a PaaS service that supports SQL Server Agent, Database Mail, and virtual network integration.
Managed Instance provides near 100% compatibility with the SQL Server database engine along with PaaS benefits.
4
Select backup storage redundancy
Geo-redundant storage (GRS) must be chosen for backups rather than locally redundant storage (LRS).
Only GRS replicates backups to a secondary paired region to survive a primary regional disaster.

Key Concept

Azure SQL service comparison based on legacy feature support, network requirements, and management overhead
Rate this question

Topics

Relational Data Storage Solutions

More questions from this topic