Azure SQL Managed Instance is the intelligent, scalable cloud database service that combines the broadest SQL Server database engine compatibility with all the benefits of a fully managed and evergreen platform as a service. Azure SQL Managed Instance enables you to move to Azure cloud almost any database that you have in on-premises SQL Server instance. Every instance is fully isolated from the other customer instance and placed in your dedicated subnet with assigned private IP addresses.
Azure Managed Instance Key Benefits
SQL Managed Instance combines the best features that are available both in Azure SQL Database and the SQL Server database engine.
Azure Managed Instance compatibility
Azure Managed Instance Service Tier – SQL Managed Instance is available in two service tiers:
General purpose
Designed for applications with typical performance and I/O latency requirements.
Business critical
Designed for applications with low I/O latency requirements and minimal impact of underlying maintenance operations on the workload.
Both service tiers guarantee 99.99% availability and enable you to independently select storage size and compute capacity.
Azure Managed Instance Scaling
Managed Instance enables you to choose how many CPU cores you want to use and how much storage you need. You can create a Managed Instance with 16 cores and 500GB storage, and then increase or decrease these numbers depending on your needs. Changing CPU or storage in instance can be done via Azure portal using simple slider
Any change that you made will be almost instant. This way you can add more power to your instance when needed, and decrease cost by removing resources when they are not needed.
Azure Managed Instance Security Isolation
SQL Managed Instance provides additional security isolation from other tenants on the Azure platform. Security isolation includes:
Native virtual network implementation and connectivity to your on-premises environment using Azure ExpressRoute or VPN Gateway.
In a default deployment, the SQL endpoint is exposed only through a private IP address, allowing safe connectivity from private Azure or hybrid networks.
Single-tenant with dedicated underlying infrastructure (compute, storage)
Azure Managed Instance Authentication
SQL Managed Instance authentication refers to how users prove their identity when connecting to the database. SQL Managed Instance supports two types of authentication:
SQL Authentication
This authentication method uses a username and password.
Azure Active Directory Authentication
This authentication method uses identities managed by Azure Active Directory and is supported for managed and integrated domain
Azure Managed Instance Backup
Storage for database backups is allocated to support the point-in-time restore (PITR) and long-term retention (LTR) capabilities of SQL Managed Instance.
PITR
In General Purpose and Business Critical tiers, individual database backups are copied to Azure storage automatically. The storage size increases dynamically as new backups are created. The storage is used by full, differential, and transaction log backups. The storage consumption depends on the rate of change of the database and the retention period configured for backups. You can configure a separate retention period for each database between 1 and 35 days for SQL Database, and 0 to 35 days for SQL Managed Instance. A backup storage amount equal to the configured maximum data size is provided at no extra charge.
LTR
You also have the option to configure long-term retention of full backups for up to 10 years. If you set up an LTR policy, these backups are stored in Azure Blob storage automatically, but you can control how often the backups are copied. To meet different compliance requirements, you can select different retention periods for weekly, monthly, and/or yearly backups. The configuration you choose determines how much storage will be used for LTR backups.
Azure Managed Instance Purchasing Model
The vCore-based purchasing model for SQL Managed Instance gives you flexibility, control, transparency, and a straightforward way to translate on-premises workload requirements to the cloud. This model allows you to change compute, memory, and storage based upon your workload needs.
The vCore model is also eligible for up to 55 percent savings with the Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server
In the vCore model, you can choose between generations of hardware.
Standard Series (Gen5) logical CPUs are based on Intel® E5-2673 v4 (Broadwell) 2.3 GHz, Intel® SP-8160 (Skylake), and Intel® 8272CL (Cascade Lake) 2.5 GHz processors, with 5.1 GB of RAM per CPU vCore, fast NVMe SSD, hyper-threaded logical core, and compute sizes between 4 and 80 cores.
Premium Series logical CPUs are based on Intel® 8370C (Ice Lake) 2.8 GHz processors, with 7 GB of RAM per CPU vCore, fast NVMe SSD, hyper-threaded logical core, and compute sizes between 4 and 80 cores.
Premium Series Memory-Optimized logical CPUs are based on Intel® 8370C (Ice Lake) 2.8 GHz processors, with 13.6 GB of RAM per CPU vCore, fast NVMe SSD, hyper-threaded logical core, and compute sizes between 4 and 64 cores.