Enterprise-Grade SQL Server Deployments in AWS Tom Fuller – Enterprise Solutions Architect

Agenda

•  What is Enterprise-Grade? •  Delivery Models and Choices •  Reliability •  Performance •  Security •  Cost Optimization •  Operations •  Questions

Cloud Humor

What is “Enterprise-Grade”?

1 Delivery Models

Delivery Models for SQL Server

Amazon RDS for SQL Server •  Fully managed service •  Easy to set up, operate, scale •  Managed high availability solution •  Automated provisioning, patching,

backup and recovery •  Failed instance replacement

SQL Server on EC2 Instances •  Resizable computing capacity •  Preconfigured SQL Server AMIs •  Full control over the instances •  You are responsible for tuning,

patching, backup and recovery, HA, management, security, etc.

Overview of Features

Amazon RDS for SQL Server SQL Server on Amazon EC2

Versions Supported: 2008 R2, 2012 2005*, 2008*, 2008 R2, 2012, 2014

Editions Supported: Express, Web, Standard, Enterprise

High Availability: Automated failover, Multi-AZ Self-managed (AlwaysOn, Mirroring, Log Shipping)

Encryption: Encrypted Storage using Amazon KMS (all editions); TDE Support

Authentication: SQL Server Authentication only Windows and SQL Server Auth.

Backups: Managed Automated Backups Leverage Maintenance Plans, or 3rd party

Patching and Maintenance:

Automatic Software Patching Self-managed

* Self installed

Control vs. Cost Comparison Cost

Control

•  We recommend you consider RDS first •  Focus on tasks that bring value to your

customers/users •  Focus on high level tuning and optimizations •  Remove your dependency on special

clustering, replication, and backup techniques

•  There are still always going to be reasons to run with full control but make sure they’re worth it!

SQL Server on RDS

SQL Server on EC2

Amazon RDS SQL Server Tooling Support

•  Most things still work: •  SQL Server Management

Studio •  SQL Server Tuning Advisor •  SQL Server Agent (partial) •  SQL Server Logs (agent,error)

•  Not available: •  SSAS •  SSIS •  SSRS

•  Not supported: •  Maintenance Plans •  Database Mail •  Linked Servers •  MSDTC •  Windows Integrated

Security •  > 4 TB DB •  30 db per instance

2 Reliability

Amazon RDS for SQL Server •  Multi-AZ Mode (high safety or high performance): •  Primary and secondary DB nodes in different Availability

Zones (AZ) •  Leverages SQL Server Mirroring •  Automatic failover (1-2 min. typically)

High Availability (HA)

High Availability (HA)

SQL Server on Amazon EC2 •  Native SQL Server Features: •  Log Shipping: typically used for DR, increases availability •  Database Mirroring: mirrors principal to secondary •  AlwaysOn Availability Groups: failover of database group

Amazon RDS Built-in Management Features

•  Automated backup and recovery Max. Retention: 35 days Restore to any second, typically up to the last 5 minutes

•  Push-button DB instance class scaling •  Automatic host replacement

Amazon RDS Built-in Management Features

•  Automatic minor version upgrade •  Pre-configured parameters and options •  Configurable administrative windows of time:

Backup Window: at least 30min once a day Maintenance Window: at least 30min once a week

SQL Server Disaster Recovery (DR)

•  AWS is designed to protect you from regional events •  Replicating across regions is an option •  On-Premise DR in AWS very popular

•  Store Backup Data •  Pilot-Light using log shipping

Manage Your SQL Server Resources on AWS

Amazon EC2 & RDS

Management Console

AWS Command Line Tools (CLI)

or AWS Tools for PowerShell

AWS SDKs AWS CloudFormation

templates

Multiple ways to start and manage your AWS SQL Server resources

3 Performance

Elasticity

•  Range of DB instance type –  From: 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM –  To: 36 vCPUs and 244 GB of RAM

•  Grouped in instance families •  Not all editions available for all classes in Amazon

RDS •  Scale up/down by changing instance type/class •  Scale out/in by adding/removing read replicas (not in

RDS)

Decoder Ring

c4.large Instance family

Instance generation

Instance size

Broad Set of Compute Instance Types

M3

General purpose

M1

Compute optimized

C3

C1 CC2

Storage and IO optimized

HS1

I2 HI1

G2

GPU enabled

CG1

Memory optimized

R3

M2 CR1

C4 D2 M4

Amazon EBS

•  Network attached block device –  Independent data lifecycle –  Virtual disks –  Multiple volumes per EC2 instance –  Only one EC2 instance per volume

•  POSIX-compliant file systems –  Virtual disk ideal for: OS boot device; file systems

•  Raw block devices –  Ideal for databases –  Other raw block devices

Storage System I/O Performance

Amazon RDS Amazon EC2 Type Size Performance Size Performance Burst Capacity Pricing Model

Magnetic Storage

20 GiB – 1 TiB ~ 100 IOPS 1 GiB – 1 TiB ~ 100 IOPS

Yes, several hundred IOPS

Allocated storage; I/O operations

General Purpose (SSD)

20 GiB – 6 TiB (min. 100 GiB recommended)

3 IOPS/GiB

1 GiB – 16 TiB 3 IOPS/GiB for volumes 1 TiB or less, up to 10,000 IOPS for larger volumes

Yes, up to 3000 IOPS per volume, subject to credits (< 1 TiB in size)

Allocated storage

Provisioned IOPS (SSD)

100 GiB – 6 TiB (min. 200 GiB for Standard ed.)

10 IOPS/GiB, up to max. 20,000 IOPS

4 GiB – 16 TiB Up to 20,000 IOPS; ratio: 3 to 30 IOPS per GiB

No, fixed allocation

Allocated storage; Provisioned IOPS

I/O Performance Planning

•  Amazon RDS maximum channel bandwidth: 1000 Mbps full duplex

•  Amazon EBS maximum volume throughput: 320 MiB/s •  IOPS provisioning: each I/O up to 256 KiB = 1 IOPS (SQL

Server Default: 4K) •  Average Queue Depth: I/O requests waiting to be serviced •  First touch penalty for EBS volumes •  Consider Instance Storage with strong backup strategy for high

performance databases •  Amazon EC2: Consider striping multiple EBS volumes •  Amazon RDS: Storage cannot scale once deployed

4 Security

AWS Shared Responsibility Model

•  Moving IT infrastructure to AWS creates a shared responsibility model between the customer and AWS.

•  Scope of responsibility depends on the type of service offered by AWS: –  Infrastructure –  Container –  Abstracted Services

•  Understanding who is responsible for what is critical to ensuring your AWS data and systems are secure!

Securing SQL Server on AWS

Network Layer Controls

DB Instance Access Controls

Data Access Controls

Encryption

Security layers to consider when deploying SQL Server workloads on AWS:

Securing SQL Server on AWS: Network

•  Networking Platform: EC2-VPC is recommended •  Private, isolated section of the AWS Cloud •  Subnets and AZ specificity (RDS: DB Subnet Groups) •  Route Tables and NACLs Security Groups: •  Restrict inbound traffic to database-related traffic only •  Leverage security group references Public Access: •  Limit access to known sources •  Potential for more frequent patching

Securing SQL Server on AWS: Instance Access

Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) •  Control create, modify, delete DB instance rights •  Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) •  Grant least privileges to IAM users, groups roles •  Use strong password policies •  Rotate credentials •  Lock away root account credentials •  Federated access from Active Directory Amazon CloudTrail •  Log AWS API invocations for audit purposes

Securing SQL Server on AWS: Data Access

•  Least Privileges logins for workloads, applications and end users

Amazon RDS for SQL Server •  SQL Server Authentication only •  Use master user login ID only for administrative

purposes

SQL Server on Amazon EC2 •  Windows and SQL Server Authentication •  Active Directory integration

Securing SQL Server on AWS: Encryption

Data-At-Rest Protection: •  Encrypted DB instances using Amazon KMS •  SQL Server Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) •  SQL Server column-level •  Encrypting data in the application before it is

saved to the database instance.

Data-In-Transit Protection: •  Support for encrypted connections via SSL

How AWS Services Integrate with AWS Key Management Service

•  Two-tiered key hierarchy using envelope encryption

•  Unique data key encrypt customer data

•  AWS KMS master keys encrypt data keys

•  Benefits of envelope encryption: •  Limits risk of a compromised data key •  Better performance for encrypting large data •  Easier to manage a small number of master keys

than millions of data keys

Customer Master Key(s)

Data Key 1

Amazon S3 Object

Amazon EBS

Volume

Amazon Redshift Cluster

Data Key 2 Data Key 3 Data Key 4

Custom Application

AWS KMS

AWS Key Management Service Reference Architecture

Application or AWS Service

+ Data Key Encrypted Data Key

Encrypted Data

Master Key(s) in Customer’s Account

AWS Key Management Service

1.  Application or AWS service client requests an encryption key to use to encrypt data, and passes a reference to a master key under the account.

2.  Client request is authenticated based on whether they have access to use the master key. 3.  A new data encryption key is created and a copy of it is encrypted under the master key. 4.  Both data key and encrypted data key are returned to the client. Data key is used to encrypt

customer data and then deleted as soon as is practical. 5.  Encrypted data key is stored for later use and sent back to AWS KMS when the source data

needs to be decrypted.

AWS Key Management Service Providing security for your keys

•  Plaintext keys are never stored in persistent memory on runtime systems

•  Automatically rotate your keys for you •  Separation of duties between systems that use master keys and data

keys •  Multi-party controls for all maintenance on systems that use your

master keys •  See public white papers and Service Organization Control (SOC 1)

compliance package

5 Cost Optimization

Cost Optimization

SQL Server operational cost depends on:

•  region selected •  instance class/type •  storage type and size •  runtime •  Multi-AZ mode •  pricing model •  licensing model

Cost Optimization

On-Demand

Pay by the hour No term commitment

EC2 Reserved Instances

No-upfront Partial-upfront All-upfront RIs

RDS Reserved Instances

No-upfront Partial-upfront All-upfront RIs

Reserved Instances (RIs) available for 1 and 3 year terms Save up to 60% over on-demand costs

6 Operations

Monitoring Your SQL Server Workloads

•  Set Alarms & Notifications for abnormal conditions

•  Default metrics for Amazon EC2 & Amazon RDS

•  Add custom metrics (Amazon EC2)

Monitor performance using Amazon CloudWatch

System Center Ops Manager on AWS

•  Management Pack for System Center 2012 / 2007 R2

•  Resource Pool uses IAM Key for connectivity

•  Monitor all of the following: •  EC2 Instances •  EBS Volumes •  ELB load balancers •  Auto scaling groups •  Elastic beanstalk applications •  CloudFormation Stacks •  CloudWatch Alarms •  CloudWatch Custom Metrics

Summary

1.  RDS can be for production workloads 2.  You have choices 3.  Understand the cost vs. control aspects of your

choice 4.  Always remember that AWS is flexible … your

decision is not frozen in time!

Any Questions?