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Azure SQL Blog
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Azure SQL Managed Instance – introduction to #SQLMIOPS

UrosMilanovic's avatar
UrosMilanovic
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Aug 26, 2021

We are starting a series of article dedicated to #sqlmiops – an area that will consolidate all aspects of SQL managed instance management into one place.

 

One of the first things that customers face with each resource is resource creation. Creating a resource is part of the CRUD (Create+Read+Update+Delete) set of commands. In Azure SQL Managed Instance this set of commands is put under the umbrella of management operations (#sqlmiops). All management operations can be categorized as follows:

  • Instance deployment (new instance creation)
  • Instance update (changing instance properties, such as CPU or reserved storage)
  • Instance deletion

 

Management operations are the area of constant improvements. All improvements are part of one of the following groups:

  • Available tools
  • Duration
  • Monitoring

 

SQL Managed Instance supports wide range of tools available for its management including ARM templates, Azure Portal, PowerShell commands, CLI commands, API definitions. Index of available commands can be found as part of the Managed API reference for Azure SQL Managed Instance together with quickstart content that will help you to quickly get your first managed instance.

 

A thing that people pay attention to are the durations of the management operations. The timings and the overall expected durations are documented on the management operations overview page and are result of the connectivity architecture that is dedicated to the highest standard of security and the consistency even with such complex systems.

 

 

 

At high level, to support deployments within Azure virtual networks and provide isolation and security for customers, SQL Managed Instance relies on virtual clusters. The virtual cluster represents a dedicated set of isolated virtual machines deployed inside the customer's virtual network subnet.

 

When it comes to the monitoring, there are couple of options available for monitoring the management operations. In September 2020 new API for tracking the progress of operations was announced. This API can come handy if you are not using ARM templates but have dependent actions that should be taken depending on the progress of managed instance operation. Usually, when virtual cluster step is completed, you are close to get your instance deployed and you can start with spinning up dependent resources like app environments, VMs that will be used to manage the SQL server or similar.

 

Product group continues investment in the #sqlmiops space, and new interesting staff is coming soon. Stay tuned with #sqlmiops!

 

Announcements:

 

Azure SQL MI now removes virtual cluster as part of the delete flow

Azure SQL Managed Instance – Terraform command available

Azure SQL Managed Instance supports mobility across the subnets

 

Call to action: If you have ideas that you would like to share, feel free to leave comments to this blog post or contact us using https://aka.ms/contactSQLMI link.
Updated Nov 16, 2022
Version 9.0
  • Hi SreedharBobbadi , yes multiple clusters can co-exist inside the same subnet. Virtual cluster is automatically created inside the subnet and if it will be created depends on configurations of the instances deployed inside the subnet. Hardware family and maintenance window are the options that define if new virtual cluster will be created or not.