Questions on Async/Sync replication for geo-replication and Failover groups on Azure SQL database

Question

Questions on Async/Sync replication for geo-replication and Failover groups on Azure SQL database

anil kumar 1,646

Hi,

Could you please clarify following questions? I want to compare GR/FG capabilities with on premise AlwaysON AG.....

Does geo-replication and Failover groups in Azure leverages Alwayson feature in the background ?
Does both geo-replication and Failover groups in Azure replicate the data in asynchronous manner ?
Is it possible to configure geo-replication to replicate the data in synchronous manner if required by us?
If there are multiple geo-replication replicas for a Database in Azure, can I choose synchronous replication for a particular replica while keep other replicas in asynchronous replication? Or this Async/sync is controlled at the transaction level ?
Is it possible to configure Failover groups in Azure to replicate the data in synchronous manner if required by us?

Appreciate your insightful response. Thank you.

Navtej Singh Saini 4,226 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-02-09T01:10:23.577+00:00

@anil kumar

We are checking this and we will get back to you.

Regards
Navtej S
Navtej Singh Saini 4,226 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-02-09T20:05:01.167+00:00

@anil kumar

Please check this document which conveys that Premium and Business Critical tiers use the Always-On to ensure high availability. Rest of the questions we are still checking.

Regards
Navtej S
anil kumar 1,646 Reputation points

2021-02-10T11:42:17.47+00:00
Thank you Navtej for taking time to help.

I have gone through the referenced document. It says "The Basic, Standard, and General Purpose service tiers leverage the standard availability architecture for both serverless and provisioned compute." and Standard availability model that is based on a separation of compute and storage. It relies on high availability and reliability of the remote storage tier. Could you please clarify ?

Is it some kind of storage replication for databases of Basic, Standard, and General Purpose service tiers? Is the technology used for GR and FG same for mentioned tiers ?

Does Premium and Business Critical tiers use the Always-On for both geo-replication and Failover groups?

Sorry for bothering you with more questions. My intention is to understand and learn....

Will wait to hear from you

Accepted answer

0 additional answers

Your answer

Navtej Singh Saini 4,226 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-02-09T01:10:23.577+00:00

@anil kumar

We are checking this and we will get back to you.

Regards
Navtej S
Navtej Singh Saini 4,226 Reputation points Microsoft Employee Moderator

2021-02-09T20:05:01.167+00:00

@anil kumar

Please check this document which conveys that Premium and Business Critical tiers use the Always-On to ensure high availability. Rest of the questions we are still checking.

Regards
Navtej S
anil kumar 1,646 Reputation points

2021-02-10T11:42:17.47+00:00

Thank you Navtej for taking time to help.

I have gone through the referenced document. It says "The Basic, Standard, and General Purpose service tiers leverage the standard availability architecture for both serverless and provisioned compute." and Standard availability model that is based on a separation of compute and storage. It relies on high availability and reliability of the remote storage tier. Could you please clarify ?

Is it some kind of storage replication for databases of Basic, Standard, and General Purpose service tiers? Is the technology used for GR and FG same for mentioned tiers ?

Does Premium and Business Critical tiers use the Always-On for both geo-replication and Failover groups?

Sorry for bothering you with more questions. My intention is to understand and learn....

Will wait to hear from you

Answer 1

@anil kumar
Here are answers from our team regarding this:

Does both geo-replication and Failover groups in Azure replicate the data in asynchronous manner ?
Yes

Is it possible to configure geo-replication to replicate the data in synchronous manner if required by us?
Geo-replication doesn't support strong consistency / synchronous replication. You can achieve something similar by running sp_wait_for_database_copy_sync after transactions that you wish to be durable, “Forced synchronization impacts performance because it blocks the calling thread until all committed transactions are replicated”

If there are multiple geo-replication replicas for a Database in Azure, can I choose synchronous replication for a particular replica while keep other replicas in asynchronous replication? Or this Async/sync is controlled at the transaction level ?
No

Is it possible to configure Failover groups in Azure to replicate the data in synchronous manner if required by us?
Same answer as Geo-DR

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards
Navtej S

anil kumar 1,646 Reputation points

2021-02-23T04:33:17.96+00:00

Thank you very much @Navtej Singh Saini for taking time and efforts to follow up with concerned team and provide the answers - It's appreciable the way you are giving back to community.

Stay blessed and happy :)

Share via

Questions on Async/Sync replication for geo-replication and Failover groups on Azure SQL database

0 additional answers

Your answer