Introducing Reservations for Zone Redundant General Purpose SQL Database

We are pleased to announce that you can now purchase reservations for General Purpose SQL Database configured with Zone Redundancy. 

SQL DB General Purpose service tier offers two redundancy options for business continuity: 

1. Availability using local redundancy, on by default. 
2. High Availability using zone redundancy, available as an optional add-on. 

Previously, the option to purchase a reservation was only available for databases with default local redundancy. This meant customers were able to get a reservation discount on the base price but not for the zone redundancy add-on. It's now possible to purchase reservations for the zone redundancy add-on as well.

Reservation purchase experience

To provide reservations for the zone redundancy add-on, we have introduced two reservation types:

• vCore, for vCores in use.
• vCore ZR, for zone redundancy add-on.

In Azure portal, when purchasing a new reservation, you'll find these reservation types under the "Type" column for the "SQL Database Single/Elastic Pool General Purpose - Compute Gen5" performance tier:

To purchase a reservation for locally redundant databases, simply add the vCore reservation type to your cart. For zone redundant databases, start by adding the vCore reservation type, followed by the vCore ZR reservation type for the zone redundancy add-on.

The screenshot below shows both reservation types in the cart. 

Before completing your purchase, you can enter the desired quantity for each reservation type.

The quantity for the vCore reservation type should match the total vCores utilized across all your databases and the quantity for the vCore ZR reservation type should match the vCores dedicated to databases with zone redundancy enabled.

The screenshot below shows the final page of the purchase experience. In the product name column, SQLDB_GP_Compute_Gen5 and SQLDB_GP_Compute_Gen5_ZR map to vCore and vCore ZR reservation types respectively.

You can view the list of purchased reservations on the Reservations page.

Please note that reservations for the zone redundancy add-on are only available in regions that support zone redundancy. For a list of these regions, please visit SQL DB General Purpose Zone Redundant Availability.

FAQ

I want to buy a reservation for both my locally redundant and zone redundant databases. How do I determine the quantity for each reservation type?

If you have a mix of locally redundant and zone redundant databases, begin by determining the overall vCores utilized by combining the counts from both locally redundant and zone redundant databases. This sum will represent the quantity for vCore reservation. Next, identify the vCores utilized by databases with zone redundancy enabled to ascertain your vCore ZR reservation quantity.

For instance, if both DB1 and DB2 are utilizing 2 vCores each, and only DB2 has zone redundancy, then the total vCore reservation quantity would be 4, whereas the vCore ZR reservation quantity would be 2.

I'm enabling zone redundancy for my database and already have a vCore reservation. Can I only buy a reservation for the zone redundancy add-on?

Yes, if you have an existing vCore reservation and you subsequently enable the zone redundancy option on your database, you only need to purchase the vCore ZR reservation. The quantity purchased in this case would be the number of vCores used by your zone redundant database. 

Where can I find the pricing information for each reservation type?

We'll soon update the Azure Pricing Page and Pricing Calculator. For now, you can view the monthly price and discount rate by selecting the reservation type on the Reservation page in Azure Portal.

We hope you find this new feature beneficial and look forward to your feedback.