Database Maintenance

The App Store for Intune uses Azure SQL Database Basic tier, which includes built-in automatic maintenance features. No manual database maintenance is required.

Why No Manual Maintenance is Needed

Azure SQL Database handles all maintenance tasks automatically, including:

Feature	Description
Automatic Index Tuning	Azure monitors query patterns and automatically creates, drops, or rebuilds indexes to optimize performance
Automatic Plan Correction	Detects and fixes query plan regression issues automatically
Automatic Backups	Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) with 7-day retention (Basic tier), up to 35 days on higher tiers
Geo-Redundant Storage	Backups are stored redundantly across Azure regions for disaster recovery
Automatic Updates	Database engine patches and security updates applied automatically with no downtime
Automatic Statistics	Query statistics are automatically updated to ensure optimal query plans

What About Maintenance Scripts?

You may be familiar with on-premises SQL Server maintenance solutions like Ola Hallengren's Maintenance Solution that schedule index rebuilds, integrity checks, and backup jobs. These are not needed for Azure SQL Database because:

1. Index Maintenance: Azure's automatic tuning handles index optimization. For a Basic tier database under 2GB, index fragmentation has minimal impact on performance.

2. Integrity Checks (DBCC CHECKDB): Azure runs these automatically. You cannot schedule them yourself on Azure SQL Database.

3. Backup Jobs: Azure manages all backups automatically. You cannot create your own backup jobs, instead, you use Azure's built-in Point-in-Time Restore feature.

4. Statistics Updates: Azure automatically updates statistics as needed. Manual UPDATE STATISTICS commands are rarely necessary.

Backup and Recovery

Azure SQL Database provides built-in backup and recovery capabilities:

Tier	PITR Retention	Backup Storage
Basic	7 days	Geo-redundant (GRS)
Standard	35 days	Geo-redundant (GRS)
Premium	35 days	Geo-redundant (GRS)

To restore your database:

1. Go to Azure Portal > SQL databases > your database
2. Click Restore in the toolbar
3. Select a restore point (any time within retention period)
4. Azure creates a new database with data as of that point in time

Note: Restoring creates a new database, it does not overwrite the existing one. You would rename databases after verifying the restore if needed.

When to Consider Scaling Up

The Basic tier (2GB, 5 DTUs) is suitable for the App Store for Intune's typical workload. Consider scaling up if you observe:

• Consistent high DTU usage (>80%) in Azure metrics
• Slow query response times
• Timeouts during peak usage

To scale up:

1. Go to Azure Portal > SQL databases > your database
2. Click Compute + storage
3. Select a higher tier (Standard, Premium) or increase DTUs
4. Changes take effect within minutes with minimal downtime

Manual Maintenance (If Ever Needed)

In rare cases where you need to manually optimize, you can:

-- View index fragmentation (informational only)
SELECT
    OBJECT_NAME(ips.object_id) AS TableName,
    i.name AS IndexName,
    ips.avg_fragmentation_in_percent
FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, 'LIMITED') ips
JOIN sys.indexes i ON ips.object_id = i.object_id AND ips.index_id = i.index_id
WHERE ips.avg_fragmentation_in_percent > 30
ORDER BY ips.avg_fragmentation_in_percent DESC;

-- Rebuild a specific index if needed (usually not necessary)
ALTER INDEX [IX_AppRequests_UserId] ON [AppRequests] REBUILD;

However, for the App Store for Intune's typical data volumes (hundreds to thousands of app requests), this manual intervention is almost never necessary.