I recently helped someone build an iSCSI target server cluster in Azure and realized that I never wrote a step-by-step guide for that particular configuration. So to remedy that, here are the step-by-step instructions in case you need to do this yourself.
Prerequisites
I'm going to assume you are fairly familiar with Azure and Windows Server, so I'm going to spare you some of the details. Let's assume you have at least done the following as a pre-requisite
Moving SQL Server 2008/2008 R2 Databases to the Azure Cloud
Extended Support for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ended in July 2019, and Extended Support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will end in January 2020. Upgrading the software to the latest versions is always an option, of course, but for a variety of reasons, that may not be viable or cost-effective for some legacy applications. Another option is to pay an additional fee to continue receiving Extended Security Update support for three more years. But for most organizations, the best option will be to get continued support for free by moving the databases to the Azure cloud.
This article highlights the considerations and challenges involved when migrating mission-critical SQL Server 2008/R2 databases to the Azure cloud and offers some useful suggestions to help avoid common pitfalls.
NAKIVO Announces v9.0 to Include VM Backup for Windows Server
In the dynamic world of cloud-native applications, the security and accessibility of data is more important than ever. NAKIVO is an organization dedicated to virtual machine backup and recovery solutions for environments such as VMware, Hyper-V, and AWS EC2 environments. NAKIVO has recently released v9.0 of its Backup and Replication solution to include VM backup for Windows Server. It’s a significant release, and as such, it introduces a major feature, along with various improvements and fixes. With this release, NAKIVO Backup and Replication now offers a complete data protection feature set for virtualized environments, including local and offsite VM Backup and Replication, support for live applications and databases, instant granular recovery, network acceleration, global data deduplication, Web UI, AES-256 encryption, advanced reporting, and cloud support.
Evolution of VM Backup Solutions
In earlier days, taking a backup of data from a virtualized environment was not an easy task. Backup solutions used by corporations in the past were unreliable, very expensive, and very time-consuming. With the advent of virtualization technology, backups became even more complicated.