SQL Server delivered as IaaS, giving full control of the operating system, with high availability from failover cluster instances or Always On availability groups.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains SQL Server on Azure VMs in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- SQL Server
The relational database from Microsoft that organisations host and run themselves, in their own data centres or on VMs. Its engine also sits underneath the Azure SQL services and SQL database in Fabric.
- IaaS
Infrastructure as a service: the customer runs and maintains virtual machines including their operating systems, for instance SQL Server hosted on an Azure VM.
- Full control
Gives every right over protected content, EXTRACT included, plus the ability to alter or strip the encryption. Owners and the Rights Management issuer always hold it.
- OS
Operating system, which you manage yourself on IaaS VMs. PaaS offerings like App Service do not expose it.
- HA
High availability means a service keeps running despite local failures, for instance by spreading replicas across zones.
Related terms
- Search data source
Connection object in Azure AI Search pointing an indexer at its content, which must be a supported source: Blob, ADLS Gen2, Table Storage, Cosmos DB, Azure SQL, SQL Managed Instance or SQL Server on Azure VMs. One indexer, one data source.
- VNN
The legacy listener type for SQL Server on Azure VMs, requiring an Azure Load Balancer; DNN has replaced it.