We all know that the data transfer from Azure to SQL Azure is free, but data access from non Azure Data-Center is charged(per Gigabytes).
Is the Data transfer from Inter Azure Data Centers also free...?
i.e. : Azure from EUROPE Data-Center and SQL Azure from Asia Data-Center : Is this also free?
References :
SQL Azure Pricing Explained
I think they are not free.
Following the Microsoft explanation:
Data transfers measured in GB (transmissions to and from the Windows Azure datacenter): Data transfers are charged based on the total amount of data going in and out of the Azure services via the internet in a given billing period. Data transfers within a sub region are free.
It is not free.
Our company has servers and databases in both US North and US South datacenters and we are charged for any SQL Azure bandwidth sent between the two.
Related
We have enabled LTR backup for Azure SQL DB's and Geo Backup policy is by default enabled in Synapse.
Below are my queries:
Does the LTR backup for Azure SQL DB's and Geo Backup in Synapse are created in a regional pair or in a Geo redundant location?
Lets say my DB/Synapse is in North Europe region and the entire Europe region is down, is it possible for me the restore the DB/Synapse backup in a server created in a different location like US.
Note -- We do not want to setup an active Geo redundant Geo replication
Is it possible to extract the backups of Azure SQL DB and Azure Synapse into a storage location of our choice (either via PowerShell or any other automated way)
Azure SQL DB has an option called Backup Storage Redundancy which can take the following values: LRS, ZRS, RA-GRS, RA-GZRS. This option replicates DB backups depending on the selected redundancy. With the RA-GRS option, backups are replicated to paired geo regions. In case the region that contains DB is down(North EU in your case), the backup replicated to paired region (West EU) can be used to perform restore using Geo-restore. This backup can be restored to a server in any region like US Central, US East, etc.
Geo-backups in Synapse also use the paired region for backup replication.
In Azure SQL DB it is not possible to extract the backups into a storage location of user’s choice.
I am importing data from SQL DW to Power Bi using SQL server authentication credentials.
I read in this Microsoft Doc that VNets can be used as Data gateways for various Power BI Data sources. Can this be applied here? Transfer of data from Synapse SQL DW to Power BI service will always happen through public internet or can it happen through VNets also?
I am new with these services, so my question could be silly!
Yes you can connect through public internet as well as from private vnet(data gateway).
Virtual network data gateways allows import or direct query datasets to connect to data services within an Azure VNet without the need of an on-premises data gateway.
as per the doc you are following VNet data gateways will support connectivity to the following Azure data services:
1.Azure SQL
2.Azure Synapse Analytics
3.Azure Data Explorer (Kusto)
4.Azure Table Storage
5.Azure Blob Storage
6.Azure HDInsight (Spark)
7.Azure Data Lake (Gen2)
8.Cosmos DB
Note:The The virtual network (VNet) data gateway is still in preview. and Virtual network data gateways is a premium-only feature, and will be available only in Power BI Premium workspaces and Premium Per User (PPU) for public preview. However, licensing requirements might change when VNet data gateways become generally available.
Reference
Create virtual network data gateways
Although Azure seems to have datacenters in Germany, I cannot select that region when creating a new SQL server on Azure Portal.
The Azure pricing page show prices for this region, so why it is not listed in the available options? Any restrictions?
There are restrictions on some Azure regions, based on your Azure account. A US based Azure account will typically not be able to use these regions for tax and legal reasons.
Full details on the German data-center GA is at this blog https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-azure-germany-now-available-via-first-of-its-kind-cloud-for-europe/
Customers in the EU and EFTA can continue to use Microsoft cloud options as they do today, or, for those who want the option, they’re able to use the services from German datacenters
Since 2016 unfortunately nothing has changed until now (2023). Region Germany West Central (Frankfurt/Main) is available for Azure SQL but you can't create one. I worked last year a few month to install our infrastructure at Azure in that region until trying to create Azure SQL. You will get an error message when selecting the server location: "This location is not available". This has nothing to do with free or pay-as-you-go subscription. The answer from the dev support after opening a ticket (october 2022):
"Unfortunately, due to high demand for Azure SQL in this region, we
are not able to approve your quota request at this time. To ensure
that all customers can access the services they need, we are working
through approving quota requests as we bring additional capacity
online. We are continually investing in additional infrastructure to
expand our available resources. Apologies for the delay in being able
to increase the quota on your Azure subscription. No additional
details are needed from you at this time, your request will stay
pending. Thank you for your patience until we report back."
The problem is that microsoft is not working transparent und you loose so much time and money. They simply have no resources anymore.
People are asking this but they don't get answers and their questions get locked:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/94278a11-c5ac-4239-b092-a256bb5c4488/why-germany-west-central-location-is-not-available-for-subscription?forum=ssdsgetstarted
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ac0376cb-2a0e-4dc2-a52c-d986989e6801/unable-to-create-sql-database-server?forum=ssdsgetstarted#00a598f2-5fd4-4c7e-ab91-913fae5ba7cc
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/52606
I am wondering whether Azure SQL resources in this region will be available after some time or not?
I wonder to know how data is stored on disk in Azure Table? are they stored in a columnar format like HBase?
Microsoft Azure Table is a form of Microsoft Azure Storage, a scalable cloud storage system. There are three layers within an Azure Storage stamp and Stream layer stores the bits on disk, and in charge of distributing and replicating the data across many servers to keep the data durable within a stamp. Please see “Stream Layer” section in the following paper (http://sigops.org/sosp/sosp11/current/2011-Cascais/11-calder-online.pdf) to understand how we manage data on the hardware.
I can't say for sure, but I don't think so. Azure Table Storage is a key-value store. HDInsight is Azure's column-family storage, built on Hadoop, similar to HBase.
Is there anywhere I can host my WCF service and SQL Server database for free?
Microsoft is offering introductory, limited accounts for Windows Azure and SQL Azure - to a certain point in terms of size of your database and traffic you generate, it's free.
Windows Azure / SQL Azure info
Windows Azure / SQL Azure pricing info
Windows Azure Special Introductory Offer
Included each month at no charge:
* Windows Azure
o 25 hours of a small compute instance
o 500 MB of storage
o 10,000 storage transactions
* SQL Azure
o 1GB Web Edition database (available for first 3 months only)
* AppFabric
o 100,000 Access Control transactions
o 2 Service Bus connections
* Data Transfers (per region)
o 500 MB in
o 500 MB out
Any monthly usage in excess of the
above amounts will be charged at the
standard rates. This introductory
special will end on July 31, 2010 and
all usage will then be charged at the
standard rates.
Completely free SQL Server hosting is very hard to come by - you might find certain hosters that will use SQL Server Express (limited to 4 GB in size, 10 GB as of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express) which doesn't incur licensing costs.
But ultimately: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch! You want services -> you gotta pay (or run the machine yourself)