Consider the following best practices for the Dell APEX Block Storage for Azure:
- Deploying APEX Block Storage in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) can mitigate workload downtime if an AZ becomes unavailable. When availability is not critical, APEX Block Storage deployment can also be done 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 NVMe SSDs optimized for low latency and high I/O performance. Azure local NVMe disks are ephemeral, and their data is deleted when the instances are stopped (this does not include reboots).
- For APEX Block Storage clusters with applications that are frequently brought down (such as for holidays and weekends), consider using Azure VM instances with Azure managed disks. While they lack the performance of NVMe SSDs, their data remains persistent even when the APEX Block Storage cluster nodes are stopped.
- Use a public subnet for external-facing resources that communicate with the Internet.
- Use a private subnet for internal resources that does not communicate with the Internet.