Best Practices for Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server on Azure VMware Solutions

This technical white paper outlines the best practices for virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server to achieve high availability on Azure VMware Solutions. It describes the architectural guidelines and operational considerations necessary for configuring a virtualized production SQL Server workload. The document includes a detailed overview of a sample Azure VMware solution infrastructure, which consists of a 3-node cluster of SQL Server instances. It presents configuration options for a 2-node failover clustering instance and a 2-node always-on availability group. The paper also emphasizes the importance of planning and designing phases to ensure successful migrations of mission-critical application workloads. Additionally, it identifies common use cases for SQL Server workloads on Azure VMware Solutions, such as data center extension and disaster recovery. The document serves as a comprehensive guide for architectural staff, engineers, administrators, and database administrators, providing actionable configuration tips to optimize virtualization experiences.