Module 1b - Understanding Azure Architecture and Management - Geographies, Regions and Zones Flashcards
Hint: These protect against…
What are Availability SETS?
A logical grouping of VMs that protect against machine and hardware failures within an Availability Zone
Services cannot replicate across Sets within a Zone (T/F)?
False. A Service can be configured to replicate across SETS within a Zone
Hint: think of what a *Zone* is…
What are Availability ZONES and what are they primarily used for?
Unique physical locations WITHIN a SINGLE Region.
Primarily for VMs, managed disks, load balancers, and SQL databases
What are Isolation Boundaries wrt Availability Zones?
Availability Zones are set up to be an Isolation Boundary, meaning when one zone goes down, the others continue working
Availability Zones contain only one Data Center (the Primary Data Center) with added security and compliance infrastructure for enhanced isolation of a specific Location (T/F)?
False. Availability Zones are Locations that consist of ONE OR MORE Data Centers with support infrastructure.
When there is only one data center in the entire Region, it is called the Primary Data Center. This whoever is NOT considered an Availability Zone.
What are the minimum number of Availability Zones when Zones are available?
When Zones are available, there are a minimum of 3 Zones
What’s the difference between Zone Redundant vs Zonal Services?
Zone Redundant - Some services will replicate your data across all the Zones within that Region.
Zonal - Other services like VMs are specific to a single zone and are NOT replicated. For these, you could still create that service within EACH Zone manually, then load balance against them to maintain availability in the event of an outage.
Hint: They share…
What are Fault Domains?
Fault domains define the group of virtual machines that share a common power source and network switch.
How are VMs distributed across Fault Domains?
By default, the virtual machines configured within your availability set are separated by upto 3 Fault Domains.
How does a Fault Domain protect your application? What DON’T they protect against?
Fault Domains limit the impact of potential physical hardware failures, network outages, or power interruptions
They do NOT protect against application or operating system failures
What are Azure GEOGRAPHIES?
Geographies represent one or more countries and contain one or more Azure Regions.
Hint: Data…
What purpose does a Geography serve?
They allow for compliance with Data Residency and Security Compliance Considerations
Some companies, industries, countries, states, counties may have policies/regulations on how and where your data can be stored
Describe Region PAIRS (where they reside, min distance between them and usage)
Regions are always paired with another Region within the same Geography.
- Geographies frequently contain Region Pairs
- Data Centers located 300+ miles apart in order to reduce impact on availability due to natural disasters.
- Auto-replication and fail-over for some services to a data center that’s part of the region pair you’re in
Where does data get moved to during disaster recovery or replication with Region Pairs and why?
Doesn’t really go anywhere…Data stays within the same Geography as its pair for tax and law enforcement jurisdiction purposes == data security compliance
How do Region Pairs maintain High Availability during updates and recovery?
- When an update to a service is available, only ONE of the pair gets updated at a time
- During the disaster recovery process, one of the pair is prioritized first for recovery
