This post contains miscellaneous information about the current\/future state of Azure SQL Database (AST). You know I couldn’t write just one more blog post when I said I would in Part3, didn’t ya’? This post has some properties of a rant in some places, but I’m genuinely interested. I try not to judge technologies, just tell people how they work…in detail. This post covers:
\nAdditional metrics in the new tiers
\nASD database functionality status
\nSync Services status
\nScale-out status<\/p>\n
The new tiers contain 3-4 new metrics that can be turned on and observed in the portal. Select a existing new-tier database, choose “Monitor” then at the bottom, choose “Add Metrics”. New additonal metrics are:
\nCPU Percentage %
\nLog Writes Percentage %
\nPhysical Data Reads Percentage %<\/p>\n
Old “Additonal Metrics” are
\nBlocked by Firewall Count
\nThrottled Connections Count
\nStorage Megabytes<\/p>\n
Original Metrics are:
\nDeadlocks Count
\nFailed Connections Count
\nSuccessful Connections Count<\/p>\n
I said 3-4 new ones because I think “Storage Megabytes” was in the old tiers as well. There may be PowerShell properties to control and monitor these too. None of the additional metrics show up in Azure PowerShell 2.3, or at least I can’t find them.<\/p>\n
Next, about new functionality (database functionality) in ASD. It’s been a while since there’s been any new (visible) database functionality in ASD. The new tiers don’t provide any; @@version is the same as the old tiers, as is the database metadata. Sequences and SQL2012 windowing functions are still missing. Event sessions were announced with fanfare at TechEd a year or two ago, then metadata appeared, but the feature hasn’t appeared.<\/p>\n
The last new functionality tidbit that I remember is the addition of compression (ROW and PAGE) about a month ago. I tried this and it works. However, without a sys.partitions metadata table (it’s “not found”) it’s impossible to see what existing tables\/indexes have been compressed. On a whim, I looked in sys.tables….and found some metadata fields from SQL2014! (referring to in-memory OLTP). Of course, in-memory OLTP isn’t there either, but this begs the question: what version of SQL Server is this based on, anyway?<\/p>\n
Then there’s Sync Services. It still exists, still works (or can be configured) on the new tiers, but it’s still preview…for the last approximately 2 years. What I once referred to, in one of my more rude moments, as “eternal beta”. No word on it’s GA date or it’s fate yet either. Geo-replication may provide an alternative for Premium customers, but for non-Premium and sync to on-premises\/SQL Server, we’re still using either Sync Services (preview) or Export\/Import.<\/p>\n