Stairway to being an Azure SQL DBA

I have been lucky enough to work in an organization where I have got the opportunity to work extensively on Azure.

Microsoft has always encouraged people in sharing their knowledge with others, none can survive on it’s own. SQL Server community is the most helpful one of all, I have always been the subscriber of all the publishers 😉 but now I think it’s right time to make my contribution in helping others who have not got the chance to work and learn about SQL Server in Azure.

This is the index for all the blogs written or will be written on the topic of being an Azure SQL DBA. I have drafted everything that I think is important for a SQL Server DBA and should know about in todays Azure environment.

I will make the modifications to content and structure as and when I feel it requires change. It is going to be a monumental task to cover everything but will do it for sure.

1. Introduction to Azure Database
   • SQL IaaS vs PaaS
   • SQL Server features comparison
2. Provisioning and Pricing
   • Azure SQL Database
     • DTU vs vCore
     • Single Database vs Elastic Pool
     • Provisioning Azure SQL Database
   • Managed Instance
     • General Purpose & Business Critical
     • Provisioning Managed Instance
     • Networking for Managed Instance
   • SQL VM
     • Provisioning SQL VM
     • SQL Server VM Settings
3. Elastic Pool
   • What it is?
   • How to implement it?
   • When to use it
4. Connectivity
   • Network configuration for Azure SQL Database
   • Network configuration for Managed Instance
   • Different security options for SQL in Azure
   • Creating Logins and Users
5. Azure SQL Database
   • Azure SQL Server Admin
   • SQL Authentication and AAD authentication
   • Server and Database Roles
   • Providing Access to Azure SQL Database
   • Automatic Backups in Azure SQL Database
   • Backup Storage
   • Manual Backups options
   • Automatic Tuning
   • Creating Synced databases
   • Monitoring Azure SQL Database
     • Monitoring Blocking
     • Using Extended Events
     • Monitoring Query Performance
     • Monitoring Database Metrics
   • Dynamic Data Masking
   • Auditing Azure SQL Database
   • Restore an Azure SQL Database
   • Private Endpoint connection
   • Point-in-time Restore
   • Restoring Deleted Database
   • Geo-Replicate your Azure SQL Database
   • Failover-Groups for your Azure SQL database
6. Managed SQL Instance
   • SQL Authentication and AAD authentication
   • Instance Failover groups
   • Connection Strings
   • Automated Backups
   • Restoring a Database
7. DMVs and System Views
   • DMVs specific to cloud
   • System Views specific to cloud
8. Azure Site Recovery
   • Provisioning Azure Site Recovery
   • Replication
   • Backups
9. Scaling the services
   • Scaling Azure SQL Database
   • Scaling Managed Instance
   • Scaling Azure SQL VM
10. Migrating On-Prem Servers
    • Migration methodologies
    • SSMS for migration
    • Using Data Migration Assistant
    • Using Database Migration Service
    • Exporting/Importing Azure SQL Database
11. Extra
    • Database Sharding
    • Disk Encryption for Azure SQL VMs
    • Implementing Always Encrypted
    • Index maintenance tasks in Azure
    • Stats maintenance tasks in Azure
    • Azure SQL Agent jobs/Elastic Jobs
    • Elastic Queries
    • Alerts
      • Based on metrics
      • Server configuration changes
      • Event notifications
    • Patching
      • Azure SQL Database
      • Managed Instance
      • SQL VM

I hope it helps!