Aleksei Guzev
22b2374fc4
- Add descriptions for custom rule set concepts - Addd reference docs for custom rule sets - Update existing docs for 4-level severity
3.9 KiB
Assessment of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines
With SQL Assessment cmdlets, you can assess an instance of SQL Server on an Azure VM not only as on-premises SQL Server, but also with rules that are specific to Azure environments.
To use such rules, do the following:
-
Make sure that both the Azure PowerShell module and the Az.ResourceGraph module are installed.
-
Sign in with Azure PowerShell before invoking SQL Assessment against SQL Server on an Azure VM.
NOTE: It is possible to use Azure account connection persisted between PowerShell sessions, i.e. invoke Connect-AzAccount in one session and omit this command later. However, in such a scenario, SQL Assessment cmdlets need the Az.ResourceGraph module to be imported explicitly by running Import-Module Az.ResourceGraph.
Performing Assessment
The following example shows how to invoke assessment for SQL Server on an Azure VM instance. Active Azure subscription connection enables rules that are specific to SQL Server on Azure VMs—AzSqlVmSize in this example:
-
Invoke the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet that establishes connection with the Azure account to get data from Azure Resource Graph.
Connect-AzAccount -
[Optional step] After invoking Connect-AzAccount, you can run the Set-AzContext cmdlet.
Set-AzContext My-Pay-As-You-Go -
[Optional step] Invoke the Get-Credential cmdlet that creates a credential object for the specified user name and password.
$cred = Get-Credential -
Select SQL Server objects to assess. For example, the following command gets a SQL Server instance.
$target = Get-SqlInstance -ServerInstance "Computer002\InstanceName" -Credential $cred-Credentialis an optional parameter and can be omitted. -
Run the Invoke-SqlAssessment cmdlet that builds a check list for each input object, runs through the list, and returns best practice recommendations.
Invoke-SqlAssessment $target
As a result, you would get an output similar to the following one.
TargetPath : Server[@Name='ContosoAzureSQL']
Sev. Message Check ID Origin
---- ------- -------- ------
Medi Amount of single use plans in cache is high (100%). Consider PlansUseRatio Microsoft Ruleset 0.1.202
enabling the Optimize for ad hoc workloads setting on heavy OLTP
ad-hoc workloads to conserve resources
Low Use memory optimized virtual machine sizes for the best AzSqlVmSize Microsoft Ruleset 0.1.202
performance of SQL Server workloads
Here, Server[@Name='ContosoAzureSQL'] shows the server name that hosts the assessed SQL Server instance, the Sev. column shows the severity level, which can be Information, Medium, Low, or High, in the Message column, the actual best practice recommendations are shown, the Check ID column shows the rule name, and the Origin column displays the ruleset name and version.
In this example, the AzSqlVmSize rule is applicable solely to the SQL Server deployed on an Azure VM; it checks whether the size of the VM is memory-optimized or not.