Microsoft Certified Azure Database Administrator Associate | DP 300 | Step By Step Activity Guides (Hands-On Labs)

This blog post covers Hands-On Labs that you must perform to learn Database Administration on Microsoft Azure & clear the Azure Database Administrator Associate Certification.

This post helps you in Database Administration on Microsoft Azure journey with your self-paced learning as well as for your team learning. There are 24 Hands-On Labs in this course.

So let’s understand the working of each of these labs in brief!!

Module 1- The Role of the Azure Database Administrator

Lab Scenario: You are a database administrator for AdventureWorks. You need to create a test environment for use in a proof of concept. The proof of concept will use SQL Server on an Azure Virtual Machine and a backup of the AdventureWorksDW database. You need to set up the Virtual Machine, restore the database, and query it to ensure it is available.

1.) Provision A SQL Server On An Azure Virtual Machine

The first lab of the Database Administration on Microsoft Azure course is to deploy a SQL Virtual Machine (Free SQL Server License: SQL 2019 Developer on Windows Server 2019) in the Azure portal. To get started with this lab you will need an Azure Subscription where you will first create a resource group in which all your resources will be created, then you will be provisioning the SQL server on Azure VM with the specified configurations.

2.) Connect To SQL Server And Restore A Backup

In this lab, you’ll create a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the SQL Virtual Machine created in the previous lab, download the database backup file, restore the database in SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and then perform some SQL queries to confirm the availability of the AdventureWorks database.

Module 2- Plan And Implement Data Platform Resources

Lab Scenario: As a database administrator for AdventureWorks, you will set up a new SQL Database, including a Virtual Network Endpoint to increase and simplify the security of the deployment. Azure Data Studio will be used to evaluate the use of a SQL Notebook for data querying and results in retention. Finally, an Azure Database for PostgreSQL will be deployed to support additional data system needs.

1.) Deploy A VM Using An ARM Template

ARM or Azure Resource Manager templates allow you to create and deploy an entire Azure infrastructure declaratively. The template is a JSON file defining the infrastructure and configuration for your project. In the template, you specify the resources to deploy and the properties for those resources.

In this lab, you will deploy a virtual machine using an ARM template.

2.) Configure Resources Needed Prior To Creating A Database

To get started with this module’s hands-on exercises you will have to configure the basic resources like creating a resource group and a virtual network.

3.) Deploy An Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) database engine that manages database management functions like upgrading, patching, backups, and monitoring without user involvement.

This exercise will guide you through the process of creating a SQL server, configuring the server, and finally deploying it. Once the deployment is successful you will give permissions to other Azure services to access the SQL server.

4.) Register The Azure SQL Database Instance In Azure Data Studio And Validate Connectivity

Azure Data Studio is a cross-platform database tool for professionals working with data and uses on-premises and cloud data platforms on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

In this lab, you will register the SQL Database instance created in the previous lab in Azure Data Studio. You can either download the Azure Data studio in your systems or launch it from the lab VM. After the connection is established and the database is connected, you will perform some SQL queries to validate the connectivity.

5.) Deploy PostgreSQL Or MySQL Using A Client Tool To Validate Connectivity

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open-source object-relational database system. This lab will guide you through the steps of connecting to the PostgreSQL Database in Azure Data Studio. If you will using the lab VM then the PostgreSQL extension is pre-installed with Azure Data Studio and you can perform a query to validate the connection.

Module 3- Implement A Secure Environment

Lab Scenario: You have been hired as a Senior Database Administrator to help ensure the security of the database environment. These tasks will focus on Azure SQL Database.

1.) Configure A Server-Based Firewall Rule Using The Azure Portal

In this lab, you will first add a client IP to the SQL server created previously which will allow you to connect to your Azure SQL Database server using SQL Server Management Studio or any other client tools. After configuring the Client IP, you will use this IP to connect to SSMS, import a data-tier application to import the AdventureWorks.bacpac file. Once the file is successfully uploaded to SSMS you will create a contained user in the AdventureWorks database.

2.) Authorize Access To Azure SQL Database With Azure Active Directory

In this lab, you will set Azure directory admin for your Azure SQL database created in the Azure portal. After setting the admin, when you connect to the Database engine created in the previous lab you will be able to log in via the Azure Active Directory Universal with MFA authentication type.

3.) Enable Advanced Data Security And Data Classification

Microsoft SQL Azure has recently introduced Advanced Data Security (ADS) capability as a single pane to help monitor and store your confidential data in a more secure way. In this lab, you will learn how to enable ADS for your SQL server.

Advanced Data Security for database aministrations tasks on Microsoft Azure

4.) Manage Access To Database Objects

In this lab, you will manage access to the database and its objects in the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) by creating different users in the AdventureWorks database, create a custom role and add the users as member in that role, create a stored procedure, etc using the T-SQL commands.

Module 4- Monitor & Optimize Operational Resources

Lab Scenario: You have been hired as a database administrator to identify performance-related issues and provide viable solutions to resolve any issues found. You need to use the Azure portal as well as on-premises tools to identify the performance issues and suggest methods to resolve them. The AdventureWorks case study is referred to for this lab.

1.) Isolate CPU Problems

This lab focuses on reviewing and identifying the CPU utilization of high-performing queries in the Azure SQL database.

2.) Use Query Store To Observe Blocking Problems

In this lab, you will determine the query that is causing blocking by utilizing the blocking report with extended events in the SSMS and identify indexes that could be implemented to resolve the blocking.

3.) Detect And Correct Fragmentation Issues

this lab will take you through the steps to identify and remove the fragmentation in a specified table of the AdventureWorks database.

Module 5- Optimize Query Performance

1.) Identify Issues With Database Design AdventureWorks2017

Being a System Administrator it is your job to identify issues within the database by executing queries in SSMS and observe the execution plan that is generated when the query is run. In the AdventureWorks2017 database, you will come across An Implicit Conversion warning, so now it is your task to identify ways to fix this warning by identifying the column which is generating this issue and then modify the code accordingly.

2.) Isolate Problem Areas In Poorly Performing Queries In AdventureWorks2017

In this lab, you will run a query to generate the actual execution plan in the result pane and then evaluate and resolve performance problems from given execution plans like key lookup, etc.

3.) Use Query Store To Detect And Handle Regression In AdventureWorks2017

From this lab, you will learn to run a workload to generate query statistics for Query Store, examine top resource-consuming queries to identify poor performance, and implement a better execution plan.

4.) Use Query Hints To Impact Performance In AdventureWorks2017

Query hints specify whether the indicated hints are being used in the scope of a query or not. They affect operators like Insert, delete, select, update and merge in the statement.

The tasks performed in this lab are: Run a workload, update the query to use a parameterized stored procedure and use a Query Hint and apply query hint for a value, and re-execute.

Module 6: Automation Of Tasks

Lab Scenario: You have been hired as a Senior Data Engineer to help automate database administration operations. This automation is to help ensure that the databases for AdventureWorks continue to operate at peak performance as well as provide methods for alerting based on certain criteria. AdventureWorks utilizes SQL Server in both IaaS and PaaS offerings.

1.) Deploy An Azure Template From A Quickstart Template On GitHub

Transparent Database Encryption or TDE is also known as encrypting data at rest encrypts SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Synapse Analytics data files.

You will provision a SQL database with transparent database encryption from an Azure quickstart template in this lab.

2.) Configure Notifications Based On Performance Metrics

Here you will create a new alert rule for the SQL database deployed in the previous lab, attach an action group to notify the team when the threshold value is reached.

3.) Deploy An Azure Automation Runbook (Or Elastic Job) To Rebuild Indexes On An Azure SQL Database

Azure Automation delivers a cloud-based automation and configuration service that supports consistent management across your Azure and non-Azure environments. It gives you complete control during deployment, operations, and decommissioning of workloads and resources.

Module 7: Plan and Implement a High Availability and Disaster Recovery Environment

1.) Create An Always On Availability Group

Always On availability groups feature is a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution that provides an enterprise-level alternative to database mirroring. It maximizes the availability of a set of user databases for an enterprise.

2.) Enable Geo-Replication For Azure SQL Database

Here you will enable geo-replication for the Azure SQL database which you created in Module 3 of this course. Once the database is secondary i.e., the geo-replication is enabled you will perform a forced failover.

3.) Backup To URL And Restore From URL

In this lab, you will first configure backup to URL, once the functionality is configured, you can generate a backup file as a blob in Azure and then again restore it.

Related/References

Next Task For You

We will cover all the exam objectives, 24 Hands-On Labs, and practice tests in our Azure Database Administrator training program. If you want to begin your journey towards becoming a Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate by checking our FREE CLASS.