The partner interface of Nordlicht Reisen GmbH, a fictional travel agency (G-05), runs on Windows servers (G-04) and uses a component that exists only for Windows. It is to move to Azure unchanged at first, and it needs a fast disk there for its quota index. This lesson asks: When is a virtual machine the right choice, and which size, which disk and which cost levers do you recommend?
Prior knowledge. Creating a VM, reading and changing sizes, states and costs: "AZ-104, lesson 3.3"; disks, encryption and moving: "AZ-104, lesson 3.4"; zones, availability sets and scale sets: "AZ-104, lesson 3.5". Choosing the service for several parts is in lesson 4.1, distributing across zones is in lesson 3.3 and backing up VMs is in lesson 3.1 of this course; whether an application migrates as IaaS or PaaS is covered in lesson 5.3. None of that is repeated here.
The requirement
The requirements sheet uses the template from lesson 0.2 and the starting position G-01 to G-10. All numbers are assumptions of the exercise.
| No. | Requirement | Type | Measure | Weight | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.2-01 | The partner interface runs on Windows Server without rework (G-04). | R | .NET Framework 4.8 with a Windows component; assumption | Must | Development |
| 4.2-02 | The quota index sits on a fast disk. | Q | 30,000 I/O operations per second, latency under one millisecond, 512 GiB; assumption | Must | Development |
| 4.2-03 | The VMs are spread across the zones of the region (lesson 3.3 of this course). | R | germanywestcentral, zones 1 to 3 (G-08) |
Must | Operations |
| 4.2-04 | Existing Windows licenses are used. | K | Licenses with active Software Assurance exist; assumption | Should | Management |
| 4.2-05 | In five campaign weeks a year, four more VMs are guaranteed to be available. | Q | Capacity guaranteed, not just quota; assumption | Should | Sales |
| 4.2-06 | The base load of six VMs runs all year. | K | Plannable for at least one year; assumption | Should | Management |
| 4.2-07 | The test environment may be interrupted. | K | Interruption without warning is acceptable; assumption | Could | Development |
Cost frame. The priority order of the starting position applies: cost goes down before operating comfort, not before availability. Cost drivers are listed below; amounts are on the pricing pages for Windows and Linux VMs.