Azure VM Clustering setup

Question

Does anyone know if Azure supports Windows Clustering these days? I have a requirement to provision a cluster to hosts SQL Server. I have done clustering in the physical world, but not in the virtual world yet. At a high level, from an Azure cloud perspective, what are step/step requirements I need to provide besides the obvious of creating a minimum of two virtual machines. Any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Hey,

Of course, you can configure SQL FCI in Azure. For shared storage you can use either Azure shared disks or Storage Spaces direct. The following article should help:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/virtual-machines/windows/failover-cluster-instance-overview

As an alternative, you can use StarWind VSAN as a shared storage to configure SQL FCI. The following article covers the configuration process: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/starwind-virtual-san-installing-and-configuring-sql-server-2019-tp-failover-cluster-instance-on-windows-server-2016/

Cheers,

Alex Bykvoskyi

StarWind Software

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Answer 2

Hello @CycleDude

Yes!, this is supported and intended. As usual with clusters there is no quick answer, but I can recommend as starters the next official article from Microsoft.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/core-infrastructure-and-security/configure-sql-server-failover-cluster-instance-on-azure-virtual/ba-p/371464

Hope this helps with your query,

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