Question 1

What does Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server consulting include?

Accepted Answer

Azure-specific architecture: zone-redundant HA configuration (same-region standby with ~120s failover), compute-tier selection (Burstable / General Purpose / Business Critical), Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) cutover, server parameter group tuning, read replica topology (in-region + cross-region for DR), backup retention design (up to 35 days), private-endpoint + VNet integration, the Flexible-Server-vs-Single-Server-vs-self-managed-on-AKS economics. Written advisory deliverables.

Question 2

Flexible Server vs Single Server — which fits?

Accepted Answer

Single Server is the legacy offering — Microsoft already retired it in September 2025. New deployments must be on Flexible Server, which has: more control over server parameters, zone-redundant HA option, burstable compute tier for variable workloads, stop/start capability, and longer backup retention. If you're still on a Single Server instance past retirement, migrating to Flexible Server is now urgent — we design the post-retirement cutover with Azure DMS and the validation gates.

Question 3

Burstable vs General Purpose vs Business Critical — which tier?

Accepted Answer

Burstable: variable workloads with bursty CPU patterns (dev/test, low-traffic production, internal tools). General Purpose: steady predictable workloads with balanced compute + memory. Business Critical (formerly Memory Optimized): high-memory workloads, OLTP with large working sets, latency-sensitive applications. We model your CPU utilization curve + memory working set + I/O profile against tier capabilities before recommending.

Question 4

Zone-redundant HA — how does it work?

Accepted Answer

Flexible Server zone-redundant HA places primary in zone-A and standby in zone-B within the same region. Synchronous replication keeps standby current. Failover (~120s typical) is automatic on primary failure or zone outage. Different from Multi-AZ on AWS — Azure's sync replication semantics + failover behaviour have nuances. We design the HA topology + read replica overlay against your RPO/RTO requirements.

Question 5

Azure DMS for MySQL migration — what does it handle?

Accepted Answer

Azure Database Migration Service handles: on-prem MySQL → Flexible Server, AWS RDS / Aurora MySQL → Flexible Server, GCP Cloud SQL MySQL → Flexible Server, Azure Single Server → Flexible Server (the canonical migration path). Continuous replication via binary log capture enables near-zero-downtime cutover. Schema-level migration is via DMS pre-migration assessment. We design the migration with DMS handling data movement + application coordination for cutover.

Question 6

Read replica topology — what's production-grade?

Accepted Answer

Flexible Server supports up to 10 read replicas per primary, including cross-region replicas for DR. Production patterns: (a) in-region replicas for analytics offload (analytics queries don't starve OLTP), (b) cross-region replicas for read-locality (global apps), (c) cross-region replicas for DR (promote on region failure). Replica lag monitoring is critical — we design lag-aware routing patterns and DR-promotion runbooks.

Question 7

Self-managed → Flexible Server — what's the playbook?

Accepted Answer

Standard sequence: (1) audit source MySQL version + parameter dependencies + storage engine usage, (2) provision Flexible Server with matching compute tier, (3) configure Azure DMS for continuous replication, (4) wait for backfill + ongoing-replication lag to settle, (5) flip reads — observe error rate + latency, (6) quiesce writes on source briefly, (7) promote Flexible Server, (8) cut application endpoints, (9) 24-48 hour soak with source kept replicated as rollback, (10) decommission source.

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