Azure availability zones confusion

Luis Bernardo 61 Reputation points
2022-12-29T17:49:55.64+00:00

Hi, I'm Luis. I'm actually training for AZ104 certifications and I get confused by availability zones :

First question ;

Are availability zones distinct datacenters ? For example, in the Region East US, availability zones are enabled. Does that mean there are dedicated datacenters for the purpose of availability zones apart from "primary" datacenters ?

Second question :

If I select I select availability zones 1, does that mean, if a create a VM, that it will be automatically replicated to another datacenter ?

Thank you... this is driving me crazy!

Azure Virtual Machines
Azure Virtual Machines
An Azure service that is used to provision Windows and Linux virtual machines.
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  1. Andreas Baumgarten 123.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-12-30T18:24:31.693+00:00

    Hi @Luis Bernardo .

    Regarding 1: An Availabilty Zone in Azure "contains" one or multiple Azure datacenter(s).

    Regarding 2: What is your definition of "primary datacenter"? If you create a VM in one Availability Zone, for instance in Zone 1, only one VM will be created -> in Zone 1. Period.

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    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Regards
    Andreas Baumgarten

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  1. Andreas Baumgarten 123.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-12-29T18:52:00.357+00:00

    Hi @LuisBernardo-4843 ,

    regarding 1st question: Yes.
    regarding 2nd question: No, only one VM in zone 1 will be created. There will be no additional VMs created automatically in other zones. You have to select more than one zone to create multiple VMs in different zones.

    Good explanation that might be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Au2QW6lsYI

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    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Regards
    Andreas Baumgarten

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  2. Luis Bernardo 61 Reputation points
    2022-12-29T22:57:09.357+00:00

    Thank you Andreas !

    So, if I create a VM with an availability zone, it means I'll have one VM on a "primary" datacenter and another in an AZ ? Is there replication ? I get two VMs with the same data ?

    Also you say : "You have to select more than one zone to create multiple VMs in different zones." => When I create a VM I get to choose between 1,2 or 3 ? Does it mean AZ1, AZ2, AZ3 or the number of AZ ? In the video we can see checkboxes, but in the portal I just can choose between 1 or 2 or 3...

    274908-image.png

    (pardon me for my english)

    274955-image.png

    Is the image correct ?

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  3. srbhatta-MSFT 8,586 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2022-12-30T06:38:22.437+00:00

    Hello @Luis Bernardo ,
    Welcome to Microsoft QnA.
    To build on top of Andreas, and to answer your query, as per your diagram zone 1 will represent AZ1, zone 2 represents AZ2 and zone 3 will represent AZ3. To take advantage of the benefits of availability zones, you will need to deploy your resources across multiple availability zones within a region. This can be done manually, by creating resources in different availability zones, or automatically, using Azure's built-in high availability and disaster recovery features.

    If you want to replicate your VMs to another availability zone within the same region, you can use Azure Site Recovery. This service allows you to replicate your VMs to a secondary location, where they can be automatically failed over in the event of an outage or disaster. To set up Site Recovery, you will need to create a recovery plan that specifies the source and target VMs, as well as the recovery options and settings.

    Hope that clears your query!

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    If you find the above information helpful, please don't forget to accept as answer for the benefit of community.


  4. Andreas Baumgarten 123.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-12-30T08:40:56.363+00:00

    Hi @Luis Bernardo ,

    here the "Create VM" wizard of the portal looks different. I am able to select the zones via checkbox.

    275062-image.png

    What type of subscription are you using?

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    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Regards
    Andreas Baumgarten

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