Consider the following recommendations for the Dell APEX Block Storage for Azure:
- Deploy Dell APEX Block Storage in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) in a single region to maintain availability even if an AZ becomes unavailable. This design keeps the resiliency at the base storage layer cluster, instead of relying on complicated resiliency architecture at the application stack. When multi-AZ resiliency is not critical, Dell APEX Block Storage deployment can be deployed in a single AZ.
- For APEX Block Storage clusters with applications that are planned to be used 24x7, it is recommended to use the Azure VM instance family with local attached NVMe SSD drives optimized for low latency and high I/O performance. Azure local NVMe disks are ephemeral, and their data must be backed up prior to stopping the SDS VMs (this does not include reboots).
- For APEX Block Storage clusters with applications that are powered on/off regularly (such as for holidays and weekends), consider using Azure VM instances with Azure Premium managed disks. While they lack the performance of NVMe SSDs, their data remains persistent even when the APEX Block Storage cluster SDS nodes are stopped.
- Use a public subnet only for components that require exposure to the Internet (such as proxy server).
- Use a private subnet to ensure security and speed within the Dell APEX Block Storage environment.