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Description

This policy identifies Azure SQL Databases that appear to be underutilized. A database is considered underutilized if its performance and storage metrics remain below defined thresholds over the past 30 days. This enables organizations to pinpoint resources that may be over-provisioned relative to their actual workload.

The policy evaluates the following conditions:

  • DTU-based models: Average DTU consumption is below 20% and maximum storage utilization is below 10%.
  • vCore-based models: Average CPU utilization is below 20%, App Memory utilization is below 40% and maximum storage utilization is below 10%.

Databases may also be aggregated into Elastic Pools for collective management. Underutilized Elastic Pools are evaluated separately by a dedicated policy.

Rationale​

Provisioning databases with resources that significantly exceed workload requirements leads to unnecessary cloud costs. Identifying underutilized databases allows organizations to rightsize provisioned compute resources, update them to serverless compute model, or consolidate them into Elastic Pools, resulting in direct cost savings.

Impact​

While rightsizing can reduce costs, overly aggressive downsizing may introduce performance bottlenecks. Similarly, consolidating databases into Elastic Pools requires careful planning to ensure collective resource demand is aligned with pool capacity.

Audit​

This policy evaluates an Azure SQL Database based on its 30-day performance metrics.

The Database is marked as INCOMPLIANT if any of the following criteria are met:

  • Monitor: DTU Consumption Percent, 30-Day < 20%.

    and Monitor: Storage Percent, 30-Day < 10%.

  • Monitor: CPU Percent, 30-Day < 20%.

    and Monitor: App Memory Percent, 30-Day < 40%.

    and Monitor: Storage Percent, 30-Day < 10%.

  • Monitor: CPU Percent, 30-Day < 20%.

    and Monitor: Storage Percent, 30-Day < 10%.

In case, Monitor: DTU Consumption Percent, 30-Day and Monitor: App Memory Percent, 30-Day are empty.

A Database is marked as INAPPLICABLE if it meets any of the following conditions:

  • The database is not currently Online.
  • It has been created or resumed from pause within the last 30 days.
  • It is a System database.
  • It is a Serverless database.
  • It belongs to an Elastic Pool (underutilized Elastic Pools are evaluated by a separate policy).

The Database is marked as UNDETERMINED if both Monitor: CPU Percent, 30-Day and Monitor: Storage Percent, 30-Day metrics are empty, indicating insufficient data in the CMDB to assess utilization.