INTRODUCTION – Microsoft Azure Database, Analytics, & Compute Services
This week, you are going to learn about various database services in Microsoft Azure such as Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL database, Azure SQL managed instance, Azure Database for MySQL, and finally, Azure Database for PostgreSQL. Beyond databases in Azure, you will learn about various big data and analytics services the company offers. Finally, learn about the virtualization offerings of Azure Compute so that your apps can scale rapidly and efficiently with increasing needs.
Objectives of Learning:
- Features and Advantages of the Azure Cosmos DB.
- Covering Azure SQL
- Database and SQL Managed Instance.
- Covering Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
- Study into the big data and analytics services on Azure.
- Working with Azure capable of running virtual machines, as well as app services.
- Azure container instances, Kubernetes services.
- Also, familiar with Azure functions and Windows virtual desktop.
- Catch the uses of Azure Data Lake and Analytics.
- Exploit Azure Synapse analytics, Azure HDInsight, and Azure Databricks.
- Know the advantages of using Azure Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL.
- Know Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, and SQL Managed Instance.
- Know the capabilities and usage of Azure Virtual Machines, Azure App Service,
- Azure Container Instances, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Functions, and Windows Virtual Desktop.
KNOWLEDGE CHECK 1
1. Which of the following cloud database solutions provides the capabilities of schema-less data, and lets you build highly responsive and always-on applications to support constantly changing data?
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL
- Cosmos DB (CORRECT)
- Azure SQL Database
Correct: The schema-less data support offered by Azure Cosmos DB allows very responsive Always-On applications to be created that can handle constant changes in the data. This is especially useful for storing information that is often updated and managed by users all over the world because it can thus be made scalable and available.
2. True or False?
One major benefit of using Azure Cosmos DB is the flexibility it allows developers to use the APIs they are most familiar with.
- True (CORRECT)
- False
Correct: Flexibility of Azure Cosmos DB allows the transition to migrate databases into the company longer with the APIs that the developers are familiar with. Therefore, during that particular period, developers will be brought in on board with their existing skills while at the same time taking advantage of the capabilities provided by Cosmos DB.
3. True or False?
Azure Cosmos DB only supports proprietary APIs.
- True
- False (CORRECT)
Correct: Azure Cosmos DB is fully open-end for many open-source APIs and SDKs so that developers can easily use a familiar tool and programming language to get into the database. It includes APIs to be able to use popular data models like SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table. That connects a very wide range of applications and frameworks making use of Cosmos DB.
4. True or False?
Migration of on-premises SQL databases to Azure SQL Databases is not supported. The databases must be recreated from scratch.
- True
- False (CORRECT)
Correct: Through Azure Database Migration Service, you can migrate your existing SQL Server databases to Azure with minimal downtime. The service performs all the important steps required for migrating and once done requires nothing more than an update of the connection string in your applications. Thus, making your transition to Azure seamless and efficient.
5. Azure Database for MySQL is a relational database service in the Microsoft cloud, which is based on the MySQL Community Edition database engine. One feature of the Azure database for MySQL is support for Automatic backups and point-in-time-restore for up to how many days?
- 15
- 25
- 35 (CORRECT)
- 45
Correct: Backups are made automatically on Azure Database for MySQL, and a 35-day point in time restore capability is offered. All this makes sure that your data is safe and recoverable while providing you with a good backup solution to meet your business continuity needs.
6. Microsoft Azure supports a broad range of technologies and services to provide big data and analytic solutions. Some of the most common big data and analytic service types in Azure are Azure Synapse Analytics, HDInsight, Databricks, and Data Lake Analytics.
Which of the following provides a fully managed, open-source analytics service for enterprises that makes it easier and more cost-effective to process massive amounts of data while running popular open-source frameworks?
- Azure HDInsight (CORRECT)
- Azure Synapse Analytics
- Azure Databricks
- Azure Data Lake Analytics
Correct: Azure HDInsight is an open-source fully managed analytics service aimed at enterprise users. It simplifies and accelerates data processing as well as reduces costs. Use HDInsight to run popular open-source frameworks such as Hadoop, Spark, and Hive, and to easily create clusters based on your own specific analytics requirements.
KNOWLEDGE CHECK 2
1. Azure supports a wide range of computing solutions for development and testing, running applications, and extending your data center.
When you require lightweight, virtualized application environments that can be quickly created, scaled out, and stopped dynamically, which of the following solutions is most suitable?
- App Services
- Virtual machine scale sets
- Containers and Kubernetes (CORRECT)
- Virtual machines
Correct: Azure Container Instances and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) are compute resources under Azure purposed for the deployment and management of containers. Both resources provide lightweight environments that virtualize application execution and can rapidly create, scale, and stop as required. Azure Container Instances makes provision for running isolated containers, while AKS is a solution designed to orchestrate and manage application solutions across clusters. Both services allow multiple containerized applications to run on a single host machine.
2. Azure supports a wide range of computing solutions for development and testing, running applications, and extending your data center.
When the demand for services targeting big compute, big data, and containerized workloads increases, one feature of Azure Compute Services is the ability to quickly deploy identical VMs. What is this feature known as?
- Containers and Kubernetes
- Functions
- Virtual machines
- Virtual machine scale sets (CORRECT)
Correct: Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) are Azure computing resources that allow you to deploy and manage a number of identical virtual machines (VMs). Because these VMs are just the same, VMSS is best suited for applications where high availability and scale require clustering. That is, VMSS also supports true autoscaling, which automatically increases or decreases the number of VMs based on demand so that your applications handle workload changes without manual intervention.
3. Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) let you create and use virtual machines in the cloud. They provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in the form of a virtualized servers and can be used in many ways. Just like a physical computer, you can customize all the software running on the VM. Who is responsible for maintaining, configuring, and updating Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)?
- The Cloud provider
- The Cloud Tenant (CORRECT)
Correct: An Azure VM, or Azure Virtual Machine, is a valuable virtual tool with which you can run an OS and applications without having to spend on the maintenance of your physical hardware. While Azure would manage the infrastructure, the tenant is still responsible for configuring, updating, and maintaining the software that runs on that VM, including operating systems, applications, and the required patches/updates. This gives you more power in scalability and convenience; however, it has a downside of always managing the software stack.
4. What can you use to enable large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) jobs with the ability to scale to tens, hundreds, or thousands of VMs?
- Azure Virtual Machines
- Virtual Machine Scale Sets
- Azure Batch (CORRECT)
- Containers
Correct: Azure Batch services are provided for cloud-based usage for workloads that need higher parallelism and high-performance computing. It offers on-demand efficient batch job execution through virtualization into a pool of dynamically scaling virtual machines. It is possible to deploy as few as ten to thousands of such worker VMs for various compute-intensive workloads such as data processing, simulations, rendering, and so on, where massive scale is needed. Azure Batch takes care of scheduling the tasks, distributing jobs, and managing resources to free you from the complexities of managing the entire infrastructure.
5. The task of automating, managing, and interacting with a large number of containers is known as orchestration. Which of the following services allows you to manage and interact with a large number of containers?
- Azure Container Instances (ACI)
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (CORRECT)
Correct: Right! The act of automating, managing, and communicating with a very large number of containers is known as orchestration. Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a fully managed orchestration service from Azure that facilitates the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications through an open-source container orchestration platform called Kubernetes.
6. Which cloud service model allows you to run Azure Container Instances (ACI)?
- PaaS (CORRECT)
- IaaS
- SaaS
Correct: That’s right, as Azure Container Instances (ACI) provide a really fast, low-effort way to run containers in Azure without the need to manage any underlying VMs or add other services into the mix. It is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering where you can upload your containers, and Azure will run them for you and take care of provisioning, scaling, and instance management. These scenarios are perfect for quickly running containers to perform tasks such as batch processing, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), or for smaller workloads and applications. Therefore, these solutions become agile and on-demand fully managed, making them great for quickly running isolated container workloads in the cloud.
TEST PREP
1. Which of the following cloud database solutions provides developers with the ability to use multiple APIs that they may already be familiar with?
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Cosmos DB (CORRECT)
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL
2. Hyperscale (Citus) is a feature of which Cloud based Database solution?
- Azure Database for MySQL
- Cosmos DB
- Azure Database for PostgreSQL (CORRECT)
- Azure SQL Database
Correct: Azure Database for PostgreSQL is Microsoft cloud cloud.manage relational database service. In fact, it is fully powered up from the community edition of open-source PostgreSQL database engine. The service provides two deployment options Single Server and Hyperscale (Citus).
3. Azure Database for PostgreSQL is a relational database service in Microsoft cloud. The server software is based on the community version of the open-source PostgreSQL database engine. One feature of the Azure database for PostgreSQL is support for Automatic backups and point-in-time-restore for up to how many days?
- 35 (CORRECT)
- 45
- 15
- 25
Correct: Microsoft Azure Database for PostgreSQL provides backups automatically and has the point-in-time restoration capabilities which help in recovering data for up to thirty-five days in point-in-time restoration.
4. Azure Database for MySQL is a relational database service in the Microsoft cloud which is based on the MySQL Community Edition database engine. What level of SLA do you think is implemented?
- 90.00%
- 99.00%
- 99.90%
- 99.99% (CORRECT)
Correct: Azure Database for MySQL offers built-in high availability at no additional costs and a 99.99% service level agreement (SLA).
5. Azure supports a wide range of computing solutions for development and testing, running applications, and extending your data center. When you want to quickly build, deploy, and scale enterprise-grade web, mobile, and API apps running on any platform which of the following solutions is most suitable?
- App Services (CORRECT)
- Containers and Kubernetes
- Virtual machine scale sets
- Virtual machines
6. With App Services, you can quickly build, deploy, and scale enterprise-grade web, mobile, and API apps running on any platform. Who is responsible for managing the underlying platform?
- The Cloud Tenant
- The Cloud provider (CORRECT)
Correct: App Services provide a managed hosting environment where developers can deploy their web applications, with no need to worry about physical hardware or software infrastructure issues.
7. What capabilities are built into the SQL Database that eliminates the need for Tailwind Traders to manage most of the management functions such as monitoring or upgrading?
- Platform as a Service (CORRECT)
- Azure Database Migration Service
- Data storage layer
Correct: Azure SQL database is the PaaS database engine where you do minimum of the maintenance, such as upgrades, patches, restores, backups, and monitoring, by directing most of the tasks towards automated assistance.
8. Your team currently uses several on-premises servers running SQL Server, and would like to migrate their existing databases to a SQL database running in the cloud. However, several of their databases use Cyrillic characters for collation. Which service would be the best option in this scenario?
- SQL Managed Instance (CORRECT)
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure Database Migration Service
Correct: The server-level collation in Azure SQL Managed Instance can be set upon creation of the instance, but it cannot be changed later.
9. Your development team is interested in writing Graph-based applications that take advantage of the Gremlin API. Which option would be ideal for that scenario?
- Azure Cosmos DB (CORRECT)
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure SQL Managed Instance
Correct: Azure Cosmos DB supports various APIs like SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Tables, and Gremlin to allow flexible data modeling or access methods.
10. Tailwind Traders has millions of log entries that it wants to analyze. Which option would be ideal for analysis?
- Azure Synapse Analytics (CORRECT)
- Azure Cosmos DB
- Database for PostgreSQL
Correct: Azure Cosmos DB supports various APIs like SQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Tables, and Gremlin to allow flexible data modeling or access methods.
11. In this scenario, your company want to provision Linux and Windows virtual machines with the configurations of their choice. What Azure compute service will you use for this purpose?
- Azure App Service
- Azure Virtual Machines (CORRECT)
- Azure Kubernetes
Correct: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can be provided through Virtual Machines, which can be incorporated into a number of different uses. With Azure, you can configure a fresh virtual machine quickly in a matter of seconds with custom configuration, either Linux or Windows.
12. Your company wants to be able to manage both Docker and Microsoft-based containers. What Azure compute services will you be able to use for this purpose?
Select all options that apply.
- Azure Kubernetes (AKS) (CORRECT)
- Azure App Service
- Azure Container Instances (ACI) (CORRECT)
Correct: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a valuable orchestration service for containerized applications in distributed architectures and large environments. AKS automates and manages the lifecycle of multiple containers and their interactions-in fact, it helps with all aspects of deployment, scaling, and the management of an entire microservices architecture.
Correct: Azure Container Instances is the most reliable and to-the-point way of doing all that Azure offers in a simplified deployment of containers without having to manhandle a virtual machine or add any extra services. Being a Platform-as-a-Service offering, it allows you to upload your containers, and they run automatically for you.
13. Tailwind Traders want to accelerate app development using an event-driven, serverless architecture. Which of the following services should be used?
- Azure Functions (CORRECT)
- Azure App Service
- Azure Container Instances (ACI)
Correct: Uses Azure Functions to perform tasks triggered using events such as; REST requests, timers, or messages from other Azure services. It is best suited for jobs that can be completed quickly most of the time, seconds or less.
CONCLUSION – Microsoft Azure Database, Analytics, & Compute Services
This week the module offers a complete insight into many kinds of database services found in Microsoft Azure like Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL.
You have also investigated into the big data and analytics services and how to efficaciously manage big datasets. Finally, the last area in this module is about the virtualization services of Azure in Azure Compute, making you perfectly skilled to scale your applications for effective performance and resource management as the demands for resources increase.