What should you plan to use to create a storage service that requires persistent storage for a Microsoft SQL Server instance within Azure?

Choosing Azure Files is the most appropriate solution for creating a storage service that requires persistent storage for a Microsoft SQL Server instance within Azure. Azure Files offers a fully managed file share that can be accessed via SMB (Server Message Block) protocol, which is commonly used for file sharing and is also suitable for applications like SQL Server that require file operations.

With Azure Files, you can mount the file shares in your Azure virtual machines, enabling applications such as SQL Server to read from and write to the file system easily. This setup is conducive to the persistent storage needs of SQL Server since it ensures that data remains stored even after the SQL Server instance is stopped or restarted.

In contrast, while Azure Blobs can store large amounts of unstructured data, they are not designed to provide the necessary file system capabilities for applications that expect a traditional file share interface. Azure Queues and Azure Tables serve very different purposes focused on messaging and structured data storage, respectively, and are not suitable for persistent storage for a SQL Server database.

Therefore, using Azure Files provides the right combination of features and functionality needed for a SQL Server instance that requires persistent storage in Azure.