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I am looking at Azure's SQL database service as a potential solution for a project. One of the requirements is HA between data centers (i.e., the database must have a standby running at a separate site that is ready to take load should the master fail, and is immediately consistent with the master). It appears that SQL Azure can only replicate data between sites asynchronously, using either sync groups or a periodic export/import process.

My question is this - is there any way to do this I am missing? Is it, for instance, possible to configure a normal SQL Server instance (running on IAAS) at the standby, and somehow introduce a synchronously replicated master-slave relationship with the SQL Azure database running in the primary data center?

thanks,

Scott.

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SQL Database (aka SQL Azure) is triple-replicated within a data center. To the best of my knowledge, it is not geo-replicated between data centers however.

Would using SQL Server (on a IaaS VM) with database mirroring be an option? See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj870960.aspx.

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  • I should have been more specific; I know I can do it IAAS<-->IAAS with a normal SQL Server instance running, but am unsure if I can do Azure SQL <--> IAAS SQL Server.
    – Scott
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 5:01
  • So you basically need a second instance in another data center with a recovery point of essentially zero. In that case, I don't believe there is an option with SQL Database.
    – mcollier
    Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 13:56
  • "@mcollier, What about sql azure (master r/w access) to sql azure (slave read access)???
    – IbrarMumtaz
    Commented Jan 3, 2014 at 11:45
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A recent development - Microsoft's Active-Geo Replication support for SQL Database lets users create up to four readable, secondary databases in any Azure region. If you've got active-geo replication enabled, then all transactions are committed to the database in your primary region, where they are continuously replicated to databases in other regions.

This feature is is currently only supported for Premium Tier databases.

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