Azure DTU Calculator for Optimized SQL Database Pricing

The Azure DTU Calculator is a game-changer for optimizing SQL database pricing. It helps you determine the right service tier and performance level for your database, ensuring you're not overspending on resources you don't need.

With the DTU Calculator, you can estimate the cost of your database based on its expected usage and performance requirements. This helps you make informed decisions about your database configuration and pricing plan.

To get started, you'll need to know your database's expected workload and performance needs. This will help you choose the right service tier and performance level for your database, which in turn will affect your pricing.

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Azure SQL Database offers different compute tiers, each with its own pricing model. These include the vCore-based model, the DTU-based model, serverless, and provisioned.

You can get a free database in Azure SQL Database at the Basic service tier with an Azure free account.

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Choosing a service tier depends primarily on business continuity, storage, and performance requirements.

Here are the main differences between the Basic, Standard, and Premium service tiers:

The Basic tier is best suited for development, testing, and other infrequently accessed workloads that are less sensitive to performance variability.

The vCore-based model offers a fixed amount of RAM attached to each vCore, with a volume discount for larger quantities.

The Serverless compute tier is suitable for workloads with intermittent usage patterns or those that are only active during certain periods of the day.

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In the serverless model, there is a flat price of $0.5218 / vCore-hour (billed by the second), with a minimum of 0.5 vCores and 2.02 GB of RAM.

The DTU-based model offers a bundled measure of compute, storage, and I/O resources, with the cost based on the number of DTUs you need.

The Basic tier has a flat price of $0.0068 / hour for 5 DTUs, with 2 GB included storage.

The Premium tier starts from 125 DTUs with 500 GB included storage, at a cost of $0.6251 / hour.

You can expect to pay $0.20 per GB/month if you require point-in-time recovery, and $0.05 per GB/month if you require long-term retention.

You can choose between elastic and provisioned options for your Azure SQL Database. Elastic databases are a good choice when you need to scale your database quickly, as they don't have a concept of performance levels.

Elastic databases are billed based on the total eDTUs required for the pool, which is important because you pay for the total eDTUs required for all databases in the pool.

The total eDTUs required for the pool is calculated based on the number of databases and their respective eDTU requirements. For example, if you have three databases with 10, 20, and 30 eDTUs respectively, the total eDTUs required for the pool would be 60.

Here's a breakdown of the pricing options for provisioned compute:

Keep in mind that these prices only cover compute charges, and you'll need to factor in storage prices separately.

Elastic Pool is a deployment model designed for applications with multiple databases that have varying and unpredictable workloads. It allows multiple databases to share a pool of resources, which can be dynamically allocated based on workload demands.

This model can help you save costs by allowing you to purchase fewer resources and share them among several databases. However, it requires careful management to ensure that all databases get the resources they need.

If one database consumes too many resources, it can affect the performance of other databases in the pool. To avoid this, you can limit the number of eDTUs databases can use under a heavy load.

Elastic pools provide a simple, cost-effective solution to manage performance goals for multiple databases. They guarantee that all resources can't be consumed by one database in the pool, while ensuring that each database in the pool always has a minimum amount of necessary resources available.

A pool is given a set number of eDTUs for a set price. You can add more eDTUs to an existing pool with minimal database downtime. Similarly, if you no longer need extra eDTUs, you can remove them from an existing pool at any time.

To reserve eDTUs for other databases, you can limit the number of eDTUs databases can use under a heavy load. If a database has consistently high resource utilization that impacts other databases in the pool, you can move it out of the pool and configure it as a single database with a predictable amount of required resources.

Here are some key limits to keep in mind when using Elastic Pools:

Keep in mind that these limits apply to the Basic, Standard, and Premium tiers, respectively.

The provisioned compute model is a great option for those who need more control over their resources. It's calculated based on the number of vCores you choose, with prices fluctuating depending on whether you have Azure Hybrid Benefit.

In the East US region, prices for provisioned compute start at $0.505/hour for 2 vCores with 10.2 GB of memory. If you have Azure Hybrid Benefit, you can save 40% on these prices.

There are several pricing options to consider, including pay-as-you-go, 1-year reserved capacity, and 3-year reserved capacity. For example, 2 vCores with 10.2 GB of memory cost $0.505/hour pay-as-you-go, $0.398/hour for 1-year reserved capacity, and $0.337/hour for 3-year reserved capacity.

Storage prices are billed separately, with Premium Azure Blob Storage tier costing $0.115 per GB/month. Point-in-time recovery costs $0.20 per GB/month, while long-term retention costs $0.05 per GB/month.

Here's a table summarizing the prices for provisioned compute:

The vCore model and DTU model are the two main options for configuring your Azure SQL Database. In the vCore model, you pay for the compute resources (virtual cores or vCores) you use, with a fixed amount of RAM attached to each vCore.

There are two variants of the vCore model: provisioned and serverless. The provisioned compute variant allows you to decide how many vCores your database needs, with a volume discount for larger quantities. For example, if you need 4 vCores in the East US region, the cost is $1.009 / hour, including 20.4 GB of RAM.

In contrast, the DTU model offers a bundled measure of compute, storage, and I/O resources, measured in Database Transaction Units (DTUs). The DTU model has three tiers: Basic, Standard, and Premium, each with its own level of included storage. For instance, the Standard tier costs $0.2017 per hour, including 250 GB of storage, for 100 DTUs.

Here's a comparison of the DTU model's pricing options:

You can use the DTU Calculator to determine the required Performance Level for your SQL Server instance. The calculator uses four Performance Counters: Processor – % Processor Time, Logical Disk – Disk Reads/sec, Logical Disk – Disk Writes/sec, and Database – Log Bytes Flushed/sec.

These Performance Counters are essential for calculating the suggested Performance Level. You can collect these metrics using Performance Monitor or a PowerShell script, as shown in Example 1.

The DTU Calculator doesn't explain its exact criteria, but it's calculated based on these Performance Counters. Knowing this will help you understand the underlying factors that influence the suggested Performance Level.

To get started with the DTU Calculator, you'll need to collect the required Performance Counters. This can be done using Performance Monitor or a PowerShell script, as mentioned earlier.

For a SQL Server 2014 instance with OLTP databases running on a virtual machine with 16 cores and 48 GB RAM, you can configure the Performance Counters using Performance Monitor or a PowerShell script. This is demonstrated in Example 1.

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In the DTU-based purchasing model, customers cannot choose the hardware configuration used for their databases.

The hardware configuration can change due to events like scaling up or down, approaching capacity limits, or decommissioning old hardware.

A database can be moved to different hardware, which can affect workload performance.

The DTU model guarantees that the throughput and response time of the DTU benchmark workload will remain substantially identical as the database moves to a different hardware type.

However, for other workloads, performance differences can occur when moving from one hardware type to another.

Customers can use the vCore model to choose their preferred hardware configuration during database creation and scaling.

Detailed resource limits of each service objective in each hardware configuration are documented for single databases and elastic pools.

To see actual resource governance limits for a database or elastic pool, query the sys.dm_user_db_resource_governance view.

For a single database, one row is returned, while for a database in an elastic pool, a row is returned for each database in the pool.

Azure SQL Database offers three main deployment models, each with its own advantages and pricing implications. These models are designed to cater to different workload needs and budgets.

The DTU-based model is one of the deployment options, which offers a bundled measure of compute, storage, and I/O resources. This model measures resources in Database Transaction Units (DTUs) and costs are based on the number of DTUs needed.

The DTU model has three tiers: Basic, Standard, and Premium. Moving to a higher tier provides improved performance and more storage. For example, the hourly cost of 10 DTUs will be $0.0136 for the Basic Tier with 4 GB RAM.

The Premium Tier starts from 125 DTUs, which cost $0.6251 per hour with 500 GB RAM. The DTU model also offers different pricing options for each tier, including the Basic tier with a flat price of $0.0068/hour for 5 DTUs, with 2 GB included storage.

Here's a summary of the DTU model pricing options:

After using the Azure DTU calculator, you'll get a detailed analysis of your database resource consumption. This analysis comes in the form of several charts that show the percentage of time your database's resource consumption fits within the limits of each Service Tier and Performance Level.

You can review CPU, Iops, and Log individually, or collectively, to better understand which metrics affect the performance of your database. This helps you make informed decisions about your database's optimization.

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After clicking the calculate button, you'll see several charts that provide an analysis of your database resource consumption. These charts depict the percentage of time that your database's resource consumption fits within the limits of each Service Tier and Performance Level.

The charts can be reviewed individually for CPU, Iops, and Log, or collectively to better understand which metrics affect the performance of your database. This is particularly useful for identifying areas where your database might be under or overutilizing resources.

To review the analysis, you can use the following required metrics: Processor – % Processor Time, Logical Disk – Disk Reads/sec, Logical Disk – Disk Writes/sec, and Database – Log Bytes Write/sec. These metrics can be obtained from performance counters or by using a PowerShell script provided with the calculator.

Here's a summary of the required metrics:

By reviewing these metrics, you can gain a better understanding of your database's resource consumption and identify areas for optimization.

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