How to get GZRS for primary and secondary region for high durability and availability for the data & applications on Azure?

Question

Hi there,

I am learning about Azure Storage redundancy and came across the GEO Zone Redundancy Storage (GZRS) option for primary region but Local Redundancy Storage (LRS) for secondary region. What if primary region goes down and secondary region becomes primary, then having GZRS option instead of LRS option in secondary region would provide more durability and high availability to wait till the primary region come back alive again to have smooth transition of data copies between the regions? LRS is just creating data copies within single datacenter of single availability zone. Perhaps, it keeps 11 nines of durability than getting the advantage of 16 nines of durability so wondering GZRS in secondary region always provide more benefits?

Any explanation or guidance would be appreciated in understanding the Azure Storage Services better.

Thanks in advance!

This question is related to the following Learning Module

Answer 1

Hi VaibhavAvachat-8208,

Thank you for reaching out to us on the Microsoft Q&A forum.

We understand that the document in the module may be causing some confusion, and we truly appreciate your patience. Let’s take a closer look at it together, step by step, to help clarify any concerns you might have.

Azure typically uses GZRS in the primary region and LRS in the secondary region for a balance between cost and availability.

 

Why not GZRS in both regions?

•  Cost: GZRS is expensive because it keeps multiple copies of your data across several zones within a region. Doing this in both regions would significantly increase costs.
• Complexity: Managing GZRS in both regions would add extra complexity without a big enough benefit for most disaster recovery scenarios.

What happens during a regional failure?

• If the primary region goes down, Azure automatically switches to the secondary region, which has your data stored with LRS. 
• LRS means there are multiple copies of your data, but only within a single zone in that region. This is usually good enough for disaster recovery.

Why settle for LRS in the secondary region?

• It's cost-effective since the secondary region is meant for backup and recovery, not for daily operations.
• It still ensures your data is available during a failover. Once the primary region is back online, everything syncs up again.

What if I need more protection in the secondary region?

• You could choose RA-GRS, which lets you access your secondary data during an outage. But if you want multi-zone protection in both regions, you’d need GZRS in both and that gets pricey.

conclusion:  Azure's default setup with GZRS in the primary region and LRS in the secondary balances cost, performance, and resiliency. If you need extra protection, there are options, but you'll pay more for them.

Refer: Use geo-redundancy to design highly available applications - Azure Storage | Microsoft Learn 

If you have any more concerns in future, please do not hesitate to reach out to us we are here to help you.

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Answer 2

Hi @VaibhavAvachat-8208,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Please follow this document for more details about redundancies in storage- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy

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