My plan is to move my hosting environment to Azure.  I have web applications that hit my SQL Server database.

My thought process is to create a Virtual Network on Azure with a set of static IP's and deploy 2 VM's with SQL Server 2014 Standard on them.  Put the VM's in an availability group.  Use SQL Server Replication to replicate the SQL Databases from one server to the other.  Couple of questions:

1.  Is that the best practice setup for 100% uptime where I cannot use SQL Azure b/c of some incompatibility with no desire to modify these databases.

2.  If I have DB's on both servers and they are in sync.  If one server fails or is down due to updates, how does my web app know to hit the other server or does Azure handle that automatically and I should just keep the names identical on both?

My next set of questions comes on the web-side.  I was going to setup 2 VM's in an availability group with IIS running on both and use DFS to keep the files in sync.

1.  Same questions.  Is this a best practice for 100% uptime?

2.  How does my website know which server to hit for the files if server 1 is down due to maintenance or any other issue or does Azure handle that automatically.

Thanks!

Glen

• Moved by Shreya HajelaMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Saturday, June 27, 2015 4:08 AM sql thread

Hi Isuglen,

If the VMs are in an Availability set, then azure will automatically Load Balance the traffic,even if one of the VM goes down, the Load balancer will route traffic to the other one.

Kindly refer the below links :

1. Understanding and Configuring Availability Sets

2. Manage the availability of virtual machines

3. Load Balancer Overview

4. Load Balancing for Azure Infrastructure Services

Regards.

• Edited by Shreya HajelaMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Saturday, June 27, 2015 4:46 AM
• Proposed as answer by Girish PrajwalMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Monday, June 29, 2015 2:21 PM
• Marked as answer by Girish PrajwalMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Friday, July 03, 2015 10:19 AM