This document discusses options for migrating SQL Server databases to Azure, specifically focusing on lift and shift strategies using Azure SQL Database or SQL virtual machines. It provides an overview of the different Azure SQL offerings including databases, managed instances, and SQL VMs. The key advantages and use cases of each option are outlined. The document also addresses some common myths around choosing virtual machines over Azure SQL Database, noting that the database service offers fully managed high availability, security, backups and more without ongoing maintenance.

1. Lift & Shift on Azure!
SQL Server
Marco Obinu

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8. Marco Obinu
Advisory Engineer
SoftJam S.p.A.
@OmegaMadLab
marco.obinu@omegamadlab.com
http://www.omegamadlab.com
https://github.com/OmegaMadLab
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-obinu-omegamadlab/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpkBeQSscC1iBvpNP4VNTKQ
• Geek to the bone 
• Azure Solution Architect Expert
Who am I?

9. Define your strategy

10. What’s Lift & Shift?
Rehost– L&S
No changes
Quick & dirty
TCO reduction 😐
Replatform
Few changes
Minimal effort
TCO reduction 🙂
Refactor
Rethink your app
Requires time
TCO reduction 🙂

11. Define your migration path

12. Migration path
Pre-migration Migration Post-Migration
https://aka.ms/datamigration

13. Migration path
Pre-migration Migration Post-Migration

14. Pre-migration phase

15. • Architectural design
• Schema remediation
plan
• Hardware
• CPU, RAM, DISK
• Software
• SQL Version, other components
Define
requirements
• Compliance requirements
• Network
• Dependencies
Environment
integration
• Feauture compatibility
• Deprecated syntax
Assess
schema
Pre-migration phase

16. Know your landing zone

17. What kind of service model?
IaaS
MANAGEDBY
VENDOR
APPLICATION
HYPERVISOR
OS
RUNTIME
DATA
STORAGE
NETWORK
YOU
MANAGE
SERVERS
MANAGEDBYVENDOR
APPLICATION
HYPERVISOR
OS
RUNTIME
DATA
STORAGE
NETWORK
PaaS
YOUMANAGE
SERVERS
IaaS
PaaS

18. Azure SQL offering
Databases
• Fully managed service • Resource sharing
between multiple
databases to price
optimize
• Simplified performance
management for
multiple databases
• Fully managed service
SQL virtual machines
• SQL Server and OS
server access
• Expansive SQL And OS
version support
• Automated
manageability features
for SQL Server
PaaSIaaS

19. Best for
• The contract on my hardware
is expiring
• I have instances of SQL Server
2008 and 2008 R2
• I want to migrate to the cloud
as fast as possible
• I use third party software that
needs OS-level access
• I want to extend our on-
premises apps to Azure
• I need an unlimited number of
DBs
• I need ultra performance
Azure SQL Virtual Machines

20. • I want to build a modern
multi-tenant SaaS app
• I want to use a database with
dedicated resources and
predictable performance
• I want to independently scale
compute and storage in my
database
• I want to have unlimited
databases storage when I
need it
• I want to build a mission
critical application with
highest uptime
• I want to integrate Azure
services into my applications
Azure SQL Database
Best for

21. Azure SQL offering
Databases
• Fully managed service • Resource sharing
between multiple
databases to price
optimize
• Simplified performance
management for
multiple databases
• Fully managed service
SQL virtual machines
• SQL Server and OS
server access
• Expansive SQL And OS
version support
• Automated
manageability features
for SQL Server
PaaSIaaS

22. Azure SQL offering
Managed instances
• SQL Server surface area
(vast majority)
• Native virtual network
support
• Fully managed service
• Pre-provision compute
resources for migration
• Enables cost-efficient
migration.
• Ability to host smaller
instances (2Vcore)
• Currently in public
preview
Databases
• Hyperscale storage (up
to 100TB)
• Serverless compute
• Fully managed service
• Resource sharing
between multiple
databases to price
optimize
• Simplified performance
management for
multiple databases
• Fully managed service
SQL virtual machines
• SQL Server and OS
server access
• Expansive SQL And OS
version support
• Automated
manageability features
for SQL Server
PaaSIaaS

23. Do you need any of these?
…then, choose a
Managed Instance!

24. • I want to migrate to Azure but
don’t need OS access
• I want to reduce overhead
and stress of maintain high
availability.
• I need instance-scoped
features like SQL Server
Agent, Transactional
Replication, and Database
Mail
Azure SQL managed instance
Best for

25. Myth-busting Azure SQL VMs
I want a VM because it’s easy to size

26. Choosing a VM can be a challenging task
Family, series and size of the VM also affects:
• Access to Premium Storage
• Computing power
• Disk throughput & number of data disks
• Cache and Temporary disk size & throughput
• Network bandwidth & Accelerated Network
DS12v2 – 4 core 28 GB
ACU 210-250
Cached tp. 16000/128 (144)
Uncached tp. 12800/192
NIC/Mbps 4/3000
DS13v2 – 8 core 56 GB
ACU 210-250
Cached tp. 32000/256 (288)
Uncached tp. 25600/384
NIC/Mbps 8/6000
Esv3 – 8 core 64 GB
ACU 160-180
Cached tp. 16000/128 (200)
Uncached tp. 12800/192
NIC/Mbps 4/4000
Azure Storage
(remote storage)
Virtualization host
OsDisk DataDisk DataDisk
VM
VM NIC vSwitch Host NIC
BlobCache (local storage)
TempDisk
RAM cache
SSD cache
More info on this topic:
https://youtu.be/7o80CJUtnh4

27. Pre-packaged, bundled unit that represents the
database power
Designed for predictable performance, but somewhat inflexible and
limited in options
DTU sizing offers simplicity of choice
Storage
Compute
Storage
Compute
vCore model
Independent scalability
DTU model
Simple, preconfigured
This model allows you to independently choose compute and storage
resources. It also allows you to use Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server to
gain cost savings.
Best for customers who value flexibility, control and transparency
PaaS: choosing the right purchasing model

28. PaaS: vCore model
• Simplicity
• We remain committed to the DTU-
based model and the simplicity it
offers customers who want a pre-
configured solution
• Flexibility:
• The vCore-based model reflects
our commitment to customer
choice and to simplify the hybrid
benefit for customers migrating
from on-premises
• Customers pay for:
• Service tier + number of vCores
• Type and amount of data storage
• Number of IO
• Backup storage (RA-GRS)
Service tier General purpose Business critical Hyperscale
Best for Most budget-oriented workloads
Critical business applications with
high IO requirements.
VLDB OLTP and HTAP
workloads with highly scalable
storage and read-scale
requirements
Deployment
option
Single /
Elastic Pools
Managed
Instance
Single /
Elastic Pools
Managed
Instance Single
Compute tiers
Gen4: 1 to 24 vCore
Gen5: 2 to 80 vCore
Gen4: 4 to 24 vCore
Gen5: 4 to 80 vCore
Gen4: 1 to 24 vCore
Gen5: 2 to 80 vCore
Gen4: 4 to 24 vCore
Gen5: 4 to 80 vCore
Gen4: 1 to 24 vCore
Gen5: 2 to 80 vCore
Storage
Premium remote Local SSD Local SSD Cache
5GB – 4TB per
instance
32GB – 8TB per
instance
5GB – 4TB per
instance
32GB – 8TB per
instance
Scale from 5GB to 100TB of
storage in 1GB increments
In-Memory Not supported Supported Not supported
Read-write IO <5-10ms for all data access <3ms for all data access
<0.5ms for hot data access
~2ms otherwise
Availability 2 replicas
3 replicas, 1 read-scale replica, zone-
redundant HA
Primary read/write replica + up to
4 read replicas
Backups RA-GRS, 7-35 days (7 days by default)RA-GRS, 7-35 days (7 days by default)
LRS, ZRS, RA-GRS, 7-35 days (7
days by default)

29. Compute
Page
Servers
Remote
Data
Storage
P S S S
Log
Service
128GB128GB
1
32
128GB128GB
1
32
128GB128GB
1
32
128GB128GB
1
32
• Scalable new tiered storage architecture
• Architected for cloud
• Fully compatible with Azure SQL
Database
• Scale compute and storage separately
• Scale up in constant time.
• Support for 100TB+ Infinite Log
• Supports 4 Read replicas
• Restore in constant time
• No impact of backups on compute
• No impact of checkpoints on compute
• Accelerated database recovery
Hyperscale Architecture

30. SQL Database Serverless
On-demand flexible scale
Operate at the true rhythm of
your business
Fully managed & intelligent
Focus on your applications, not
your infrastructure
Cost-effective
Pay for performance. Period.
Adapts compute resources to the
workload without sacrificing performance
Automatically pauses and resumes
Fully-managed and intelligent
database service
Built-in 99.99% availability
Pay only for compute resources you
consume, on a per-second basis
Further optimize costs with
configurable compute thresholds
Best for unpredictable and intermittent
workloads on single databases, such as: Dev/test E-commerceLine of Business
Min vcores
CPU usage
Inactive Paused
Max vcores Vcores used Vcores billed

31. Myth-busting Azure SQL VMs
A single VM is enough!
HA is provided by the Hypervisor

32. SQL VM BCDR: roles and responsibilities
• Microsoft
• None 
• Customer
• Everything 
Microsoft
Customer

33. VM and SLAs
STANDARD PREMIUM

34. SQL Server HADR solutions for Azure IaaS

35. Always On Availability Group on-prem
network subnet
AG Listener
VNN IP
On-prem network
VNN IP

36. Always On Availability Group on Azure
network subnet
AG Listener
VNN IP
Azure vnet
VNN IP
Load Balancer

37. PaaS BCDR: roles and responsibilities
• Microsoft
• Geo-distrubuted service
• Customer metadata protection and recovery
• Transparent high availability and data protection from local platform
failures
• Automatic geo-distributed backups
• Automatic data sync of geo-replicated databases
• Platform compliance testing and certification
• Alert to impacted customers during regional failures
• Customer
• Implementing retry login in your application
• Detecting user errors and initiating point-in-time restore
• Planning, database prioritization, and region selection for disaster recovery
• Initiating geo-restore to selected region
• Application disaster recovery drills
Microsoft
Customer

38. PaaS: General Purpose Architecture
Redundant node
Active compute node
Azure storage account
Scaled node
Separation of compute and storage
• Stateless compute VM
• TempDB on local SSD
• Data and log on remote Premium Storage
Property Value
vCores 1-80
Memory 5.1 GB/core
IO latency 5-10ms
IOPS Up to 40K
Load Up to22MB/s
Spare node

39. • All databases on local SSD (NVMe)
• Failed node is replaced with the spare
PaaS: Business Critical Architecture
Secondary endpoint
(read-only)
Primary endpoint
(read-write)
Always On AG
Super-fast SSD
Secondary replicaPrimary replica
Secondary replicaSecondary replicaSpare node
Secondary replica
Property Value
vCores 1-80
Memory 5.1/7 GB/core
IO latency < 3 ms
IOPS Up to 110K
Load 48 MB/s
In-memory OLTP 3GB-130GB

40. Myth-busting Azure SQL VMs
PaaS is accessed via a public endpoint.
A VM is more secure!

41. Azure SQL Networking
On-prem datacenter
Vnet 10.0.0.0/16
Subnet 10.0.2.0/24
Vnet 192.168.0.0/16
Subnet 10.0.1.0/24
Subnet 10.0.2.0/24
Peering
Vnet integration
Service
Endpoint
Subnet 10.0.4.0/24
Private Link
Private IP
Subnet 10.0.5.0/24
Subnet 10.0.3.0/24

42. PaaS: Enterprise-class Security Controls

43. Advanced Threat Detection
Azure SQL DatabaseApps
Audit
Log
Threat Detection
(1) Turn on Threat Detection
(3) Real-time actionable alerts
(2) Possible threat to
access / breach data

44. Myth-busting Azure SQL VMs
I want a VM to reuse my own licenses!
And PaaS is so expensive…

45. Licensing models and cost-saving options
pay attention to passive nodes!

46. PaaS: Licensing models and cost-saving options

47. Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server (PaaS)
License trade-in values
General purpose or
Hyperscale vCore
4x General purpose or
Hyperscale vCores
Business critical
vCore
SQL Server cores
with SA license
vCores on Azure
SQL Database
SQL Server
Enterprise Edition
SQL Server
Standard Edition
 Take an inventory of on-premises licenses
to determine potential for conversion
 Convert on-premises cores to vCores to
maximize value of investments

48. A simple comparison with the public calculator
Service type Region Description Estimated monthly cost
Virtual Machines West Europe
2 D8s v3 (8 vCPU(s), 32 GB RAM) x 730 Hours; Windows – (OS
Only); Pay as you go; 2 managed OS disks – P10
€1.080,64
Storage Accounts West Europe
Managed Disks, Premium SSD, P20 Disk Type 4 Disks, Pay as you
go
€271.68
Azure SQL Database West Europe
Managed Instance, vCore Purchase Model, General Purpose Tier,
Single Instance, Provisioned, Gen 5, 1 8 vCore instance(s) x 730
Hours, 1,024 GB Storage, 0 GB Backup Storage
€939,10
VM vs Managed Instance
Service type Region Description Estimated monthly cost
Virtual Machines West Europe
2 D8s v3 (8 vCPU(s), 32 GB RAM) x 730 Hours; Windows – SQL
Server; Pay as you go; 2 managed OS disks – P10
€2.065,61
Storage Accounts West Europe
Managed Disks, Premium SSD, P20 Disk Type 4 Disks, Pay as you
go
€271.68
Azure SQL Database West Europe
Managed Instance, vCore Purchase Model, General Purpose Tier,
Single Instance, Provisioned, Gen 5, 1 8 vCore instance(s) x 730
Hours, 1,024 GB Storage, 0 GB Backup Storage
€1.431,42
With Azure Hybrid Benefit
Pay-as-you-go
https://azure.microsoft.com/it-it/pricing/calculator/

49. Did we miss something??
SQL Server Integration Services
 Azure Data Factory
 Azure-SSIS integration runtime
 Data Flow
 SSIS on IaaS VM
SQL Server Analysis Services
 Azure Analysis Services (tabular)
 SSAS on IaaS VM
SQL Server Reporting Services
 Power BI
 SSRS on IaaS VM

50. Myth-busting Azure SQL VMs
I really need a VM, sob 😥
I’ll miss all that managed features…

51. Azure SQL Database
Everything built-in!
Business continuity
High availability
Automated backups
Long term backup
retention
Geo-replication
Scale
Advanced security
Automatic tuning
Built-in monitoring
Built-in intelligence

52. Azure SQL Database
Everything built-in!
Business continuity
High availability
Automated backups
Long term backup
retention
Geo-replication
Scale
Advanced security
Automatic tuning
Built-in monitoring
Built-in intelligence
configurable
VMs

53. SQL IaaS VM Resource Provider
Azure VMs are now discoverable
on the new Azure SQL blade
in Azure Marketplace
Self-installed VMs registered
with RP now can access
automation features in
Azure Marketplace images
Self-installed VMs with RP
can be easily converted
to PAYG images
Self-installed VMs with RP
automatically indicate usage
of Azure Hybrid Benefit
Learn more aka.ms/sqlvm_rp and aka.ms/sqlvm_rp_documentation

54. Pre-migration phase
The tools

55. Pre-migration tools
• Database Migration Assistant
• PAL and performance counter
• Diagnostic queries
• MAP Toolkit
• Azure Monitor – Service Map solution

56. Database Migration Assistant

57. Pre-migration tools
• Database Migration Assistant
• PAL and performance counter
• Diagnostic queries
• MAP Toolkit
• Azure Monitor – Service Map solution

58. Azure Monitor - Service Map solution

59. Migration phase

60. Migration
BACPAC

61. More info on this topic:
https://vimeo.com/321092681
Azure Database Migration Service
• Azure deployment
• Standard tier  offline migrations
• Premium tier  online migrations
• Hybrid deployment (preview)

62. Post-migration phase

63. Post-Migration
Assess
RemediateTest

64. Post-Migration – Tools
• A/B Testing
• Database Experimentation Assistant (DEA)
• Workload Tools by @SpaghettiDBA
Record
workload
Replay on
source and
establish a
baseline
Replay on
destination
Compare
results

65. Post-Migration – Tools
• QueryStore

66. Post-Migration – Tools
• Monitoring
• Azure Monitor (Azure SQL Analytics and VM Insights)

67. Useful links
• Azure SQL IaaS playground
• https://github.com/OmegaMadLab/SqlIaasVmPlayground
• SQL-optimized-VM ARM template
• https://github.com/OmegaMadLab/OptimizedSqlVm-v2
• Database migration guide
• https://aka.ms/datamigration
• SpaghettiDBA’s Workload tools
• https://github.com/spaghettidba/WorkloadTools
• DBATools PowerShell module
• https://dbatools.io
• SQL Server free workshops
• https://microsoft.github.io/sqlworkshops/

68. Thank you
Ricordatevi di
compilare il feedback
form 
https://speakerscore.
com/35R6
#SqlSat921