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Exam AZ-304 topic 3 question 9 discussion

Actual exam question from Microsoft's AZ-304

Question #: 9
Topic #: 3

You are designing a SQL database solution. The solution will include 20 databases that will be 20 GB each and have varying usage patterns.
You need to recommend a database platform to host the databases. The solution must meet the following requirements:
✑ The compute resources allocated to the databases must scale dynamically.
✑ The solution must meet an SLA of 99.99% uptime.
✑ The solution must have reserved capacity.
✑ Compute charges must be minimized.
What should you include in the recommendation?

A. 20 databases on a Microsoft SQL server that runs on an Azure virtual machine in an availability set
B. 20 instances of Azure SQL Database serverless
C. 20 databases on a Microsoft SQL server that runs on an Azure virtual machine
D. an elastic pool that contains 20 Azure SQL databases

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: D 🗳️

by xAlx at Dec. 4, 2020, 3:42 p.m.

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xAlx

Highly Voted 4 years, 6 months ago

Correct

upvoted 35 times

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syu31svc

Highly Voted 3 years, 8 months ago

Answer is D https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/elastic-pool-overview Azure SQL Database elastic pools are a simple, cost-effective solution for managing and scaling multiple databases that have varying and unpredictable usage demands. The databases in an elastic pool are on a single server and share a set number of resources at a set price. Elastic pools in Azure SQL Database enable SaaS developers to optimize the price performance for a group of databases within a prescribed budget while delivering performance elasticity for each database.

upvoted 7 times

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OCHT

Most Recent 3 years ago

Selected Answer: D

Correct answer is D

upvoted 1 times

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Dawn7

3 years, 3 months ago

Selected Answer: D

D is correct

upvoted 1 times

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us3r

3 years, 4 months ago

Selected Answer: D

D for the win

upvoted 1 times

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AhmedHassan16

3 years, 5 months ago

D. is the correct answer.

upvoted 1 times

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Eitant

3 years, 5 months ago

Selected Answer: D

Correct answer

upvoted 4 times

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MasterArmSwitch

3 years, 6 months ago

For me, due: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/serverless-tier-overview#scenarios-well-suited-for-serverless-compute and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/serverless-tier-overview#scenarios-well-suited-for-provisioned-compute answer is D

upvoted 2 times

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student22

3 years, 7 months ago

D --- I think Elastic Pools with reserved capacity will be cheaper than server less.

upvoted 2 times

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nkv

3 years, 8 months ago

came in exam on 20-sep-21, I passed, i choose A

upvoted 2 times

arslanshah86

3 years, 8 months ago

“A” cant be correct. AVSets dont have 99.99% SLA

upvoted 7 times

VincentZhang

3 years, 8 months ago

That's correct. AVSet is 99.95% while AVZone is 99.99%. https://www.azure.cn/en-us/support/sla/virtual-machines/

upvoted 3 times

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moota

4 years, 1 month ago

Azure SQL databases can also do Reserved Capacity https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/reserved-capacity-overview

upvoted 2 times

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Carlous

4 years, 2 months ago

Curious, why not B?

upvoted 2 times

pekay

4 years, 1 month ago

key is: databases that will be 20 GB each and have varying usage patterns. hence elastic pools

upvoted 8 times

Charles99

4 years ago

so what? why won't serverless fulfill these two requirements?

upvoted 1 times

BoxGhost

3 years, 9 months ago

It says 99.99% uptime required. Surely serverless is not suitable because of the warmup time as HDZ78 already mentioned? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/serverless-tier-overview#scenarios Serverless is price-performance optimized for single databases with intermittent, unpredictable usage patterns that can afford some delay in compute warm-up after idle usage periods. In contrast, the provisioned compute tier is price-performance optimized for single databases or multiple databases in elastic pools with higher average usage that cannot afford any delay in compute warm-up

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Charles99

4 years ago

rather, the reason can't be serverless is due to reserved capacity which is not supported in server tier

upvoted 7 times

GetulioJr

3 years, 12 months ago

That is right, B is out of question because it does not allow reserved capacity. "Azure Hybrid Benefit (AHB) and reserved capacity discounts do not apply to the serverless compute tier." REF: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/serverless-tier-overview#billing

upvoted 3 times

ddb116

3 years, 11 months ago

This think people are not understanding reserved capacity. This is about pre-committing database servers. Essentially paying ahead. Azure SQL Services for Managed instances and Azure SQL Database can both be have it. I agree with Moota. With elastic pools you are sharing resources. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/reserved-capacity-overview I think the answer is B.

upvoted 2 times

HDZ78

3 years, 11 months ago

It depends on how you interpret reserved capacity. The GA blogpost way back clearly states that warm-up times after a period of inactivity are the trade off for serverless: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-sql/optimize-price-performance-with-compute-auto-scaling-in-azure/ba-p/966149 To me that would make it D.

upvoted 1 times

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Vipsao

4 years, 2 months ago

D is Correct

upvoted 2 times

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gdawg

4 years, 3 months ago

HMMMM i read " The compute resources allocated to the databases must scale dynamically." to mean that it must autoscale and therefore went for B as that is the only option that autoscales, question is do they mean autoscale when they say "scale dynamically"?

upvoted 3 times

Leon3020

4 years, 1 month ago

I would understand scale dynamically is equivalent to autoscale, otherwise we can Azure VM without autoscale included is also scale dynamically.

upvoted 1 times

Leon3020

4 years, 1 month ago

Sorry, above is incorrect after I found below statement in MS website. Dynamic scalability is different from autoscale. Autoscale is when a service scales automatically based on criteria, whereas dynamic scalability allows for manual scaling with a minimal downtime. So the correct answer is B

upvoted 2 times

AmitDeorukhkar

4 years, 1 month ago

Hello Leon, Was the article from where you fetched this Dynamic vs Auto scale in context to Azure SQL? Both B and D sounds correct but in terms of terminologies, it cold be a different service

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glam

4 years, 4 months ago

D. an elastic pool that contains 20 Azure SQL databases

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KirubakaraSen

4 years, 5 months ago

99.95%.?? Requirement is to have 99.99%.. Is this a typo..

upvoted 2 times

joshyz73

4 years, 5 months ago

Not a typo. The article linked and the explanation say 99.995%, which is even greater that 99.99% (which is 99.990%), so it's all correct.

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arseyam

4 years, 5 months ago

- Azure SQL Database Business Critical or Premium tiers configured as Zone Redundant Deployments have an availability guarantee of at least 99.995%. - Azure SQL Database Business Critical or Premium tiers not configured for Zone Redundant Deployments, General Purpose, Standard, or Basic tiers, or Hyperscale tier with two or more replicas have an availability guarantee of at least 99.99%. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/sla/sql-database/v1_5/

upvoted 4 times

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