Module 1b - Understanding Azure Architecture and Management - Geographies, Regions and Zones Flashcards

1
Q

Hint: These protect against…

What are Availability SETS?

A

A logical grouping of VMs that protect against machine and hardware failures within an Availability Zone

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2
Q

Services cannot replicate across Sets within a Zone (T/F)?

A

False. A Service can be configured to replicate across SETS within a Zone

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3
Q

Hint: think of what a *Zone* is…

What are Availability ZONES and what are they primarily used for?

A

Unique physical locations WITHIN a SINGLE Region.

Primarily for VMs, managed disks, load balancers, and SQL databases

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4
Q

What are Isolation Boundaries with regard to Availability Zones?

A

Availability Zones are set up to be an Isolation Boundary, meaning when one zone goes down, the others continue working

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5
Q

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)?

A

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.

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6
Q

What are the minimum number of Availability Zones when Zones are available?

A

When Zones are available, there are a minimum of 3 Zones

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7
Q

What’s the difference between Zone Redundant vs Zonal Services?

A

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.

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8
Q

Hint: They share…

What are Fault Domains?

A

Fault domains define the group of virtual machines that share a common power source and network switch.

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9
Q

How are VMs distributed across Fault Domains?

A

By default, the virtual machines configured within your availability set are separated by upto 3 Fault Domains.

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10
Q

How does a Fault Domain protect your application? What DON’T they protect against?

A

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

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11
Q

What are Azure GEOGRAPHIES?

A

Geographies represent one or more countries and contain one or more Azure Regions.

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12
Q

Hint: Data…

What purpose does a Geography serve?

A

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

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13
Q

Describe Region PAIRS (where they reside, min distance between them and usage)

A

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
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14
Q

Where does data get moved to during disaster recovery or replication with Region Pairs and why?

A

Doesn’t really go anywhere…Data stays within the same Geography as its pair for tax and law enforcement jurisdiction purposes == data security compliance

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15
Q

How do Region Pairs maintain High Availability during updates and recovery?

A
  • 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
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16
Q

Hint: Literally, what is a Region?

What is an Azure REGION and what three (3) considerations must you make when selecting one?

A

The PHYSICAL LOCATION of one or more data centers.

  • *Performance**: Select one for your services that’s close to your users
  • *Service Availability**: Some services are not available in some regions; always check
  • *Compliance**: Some countries/states/counties/corporations have requirements wrt data processing, transmission and residency
17
Q

Azure Region - Compliance. What does this entail?

A

Regions within the limits of city/county/state/country or nation may have Data Compliance Regulations. You need to know these prior to implementing and utilizing services in those Regions. Compliance can be found on

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/trusted-cloud/compliance/

and

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/

18
Q

Azure Region - what is a Non-Regional Service?

A

Some Services won’t require you to select a Region

19
Q

What distinguishes a Region with a Primary Data Center?

A

Not all Regions have Availability Zones. Some regions only have a single (Primary) Data Center.

20
Q

What are Special Regions?

A

Specialized Regions are intended for compliance and legal purposes

US DoD Central, US Gov Virginia, etc. These are physical and logical network-isolated instances of Azure for US government agencies and partners

China East and China North for example are regions available only through partnership between Microsoft and 21Vianet (state controlled ISP and Data Center infrastructure)

21
Q

What are Update Domains?

A

Update domains indicate groups of VMs and underlying physical hardware that can be rebooted at the same time.

22
Q

How long is an Update Domain given to recover from Updates?

A

A rebooted update domain is given 30 minutes to recover before maintenance is initiated on a different update domain.

23
Q

How are VMs arranged in an Update Domain?

A

An even distribution across 5 Domains

When more than five virtual machines are configured within a single availability set, the sixth virtual machine is placed into the same update domain as the first virtual machine, the seventh in the same update domain as the second virtual machine, and so on

24
Q

How are Update Domains updated?

A

The order of update domains being rebooted may not proceed sequentially; only one update domain is rebooted at a time.