SQL Server on Linux Journey – Part 3: Azure options

On Part 2 of this series we covered SQL Server on premises and performance benchmarks including one with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise which created a diskless database using persistent memory to run SQL Server on SUSE.

Now, we’ll move on to cover the benefits of Azure and what are your options among Pay-As-You-Go Virtual Machines and Bring-Your-Own-Subscription.

Why run SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines?

When it comes to public cloud adoption, a recent IDC research shows that Data Management and Data Analytics are the top workloads that customers are migrating to the public cloud.

Those workloads are expected to continue at the top, primarily driven by the ‘Lift & Shift’ migrations of legacy workloads, availability of accelerated compute instances, and democratization of AI/ ML capabilities.

So, the answer as to “why run SQL Server on Azure VMs” may be simple:

• it gives you the benefit of complete control over the SQL Server instance and underlying operating system which, of course, we suggest you use SUSE Linux Enterprise Server;
• it is optimized for lift-and-shift cloud migrations (when you move existing on-premises apps to the cloud without any re-architecture needed);
• It simplifies your licensing costs when you opt for pay as you go (PAYG).

So, if you have apps that require a large database and the full feature set of SQL Server but you want to avoid the expense of on premises, you should explore migrating to Azure.

Start today with Azure VMs on SLES 12 tuned kernel! And stay tuned for SLES 15 coming soon 

To get full details and a how-to guide on running SQL Server on Azure VMs with SUSE, please register to watch our on-demand webinar (we had 2,000+ registrants and 150+ questions so, it is definitely a hot topic!).

For now, I’ll give you some highlights on the topic below:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a solid multimodal OS for the software-defined era with a common code base (ease of migration/containers adoption, and improved systems management); accelerated deployment (leveraging open source technology and knowledge) and efficient IT infrastructure (ease of deployment/transition across hybrid environments).

Microsoft has a pre-configured Azure Marketplace offer for SQL Server 2019 with SLES 12 sp5 for a PAYG experience (including Microsoft support). This offer includes our Azure tuned kernel which was co-engineered with Microsoft to optimize Azure throughput and reduce latency.

And, if you are wondering about the benefits of running Azure VMs on SUSE instead of Windows, you are not alone, we had this question come up on our webinar and our answer is that “you can save OS licensing costs and increase platform flexibility when you have other apps on Linux platforms that can be supported within the same DB engine.”

Coming soon, Microsoft will launch a new offer leveraging our most current operating system: SLES 15. Stay tuned for a new blog when we are live.

And can I bring my own subscriptions to Azure, instead?

Yes! This is called BYOS and you can follow steps on this Quickstart Guide to Bring-Your-Own-Subscriptions to Azure. This route is well suited for production environments since you will be able to architect a highly available platform by configuring SLES Cluster for SQL Server Availability Group where you can bring your own subscription of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server HA Extension. Stay tuned for more HA details on this blog series.

Next stop… Part 4

On Part 4 we go deeper on SQL Server on Linux HA terminology and components and later, we will move on to containers and Big Data Clusters. Stay tuned!

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