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Category: Cloud

Azure Automation

Published 2016-09-19 by Kevin Feasel

Melissa Coates explains Azure Automation:

Azure Automation is a cloud service in Microsoft Azure which let you schedule execution of PowerShell cmdlets and PowerShell workflows. Azure Automation uses the concept of runbooks to execute a set of repeatable, repetitive tasks via PowerShell. Consistency in execution, reduction of errors, and of course saving time, are all key objectives – which makes DBAs and system admins happy, eh?

This is a higher-level discussion including some good tips on the product.

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Migrating To Azure SQL Database

Published 2016-09-19 by Kevin Feasel

Niko Neugebauer is building a compendium of methods to migrate an on-prem database to Azure SQL Database:

I decided to put a list of the migration methods that can be useful for migrating to Azure SQLDatabase. By all means it is not complete and if you have any suggestions to expand it – do not be shy.

The current list of the ways that I am considering is here:

  • SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

  • BACPAC + SSMS/Portal/Powershell

  • SQL Azure Migration Wizard (SAMW)

  • SQL Server Data Tools (Visual Studio) + BCP/SSIS

  • Azure Data Factory

  • Transactional Replication

  • Linked Server

Read on for the details on each method.

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Real-Time Power BI Dashboards

Published 2016-09-16 by Kevin Feasel

Reza Rad builds a real-time dashboard with Stream Analytics and Power BI:

IoT Devices or Applications can pass their data to Azure Event Hub, and Azure Event hub can be used as an input to Azure Stream Analytics (which is a data streaming Azure service). Then Azure stream analytics can pass the data from input based on queries to outputs. If Power BI be used as an output then a dataset in Power BI will be generated that can be used for real-time dashboard.

As a result anytime a new data point from application or IoT device comes through Event hubs, and then Stream Analytics, Power BI dashboard will automatically update with new information.

This is a pretty nice weekend project.

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Azure SQL Database Size Quotas

Published 2016-09-16 by Kevin Feasel

Dimitri Furman discusses the MAXSIZE property on an Azure SQL Database:

Customers can use this ability to allow scaling down to a lower service objective, when otherwise scaling down wouldn’t be possible because the database is too large.

While this capability is useful for some customers, the fact that the actual size quota for the database may be different from the maximum size quota for the selected service objective can be unexpected, particularly for customers who are used to working with the traditional SQL Server, where there is no explicit size quota at the database level. Exceeding the unexpectedly low database size quota will prevent new space allocations within the database, which can be a serious problem for many types of applications.

One more thing to think about, I suppose.

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Restoring An Azure SQL Database

Published 2016-09-16 by Kevin Feasel

Arun Sirpal discusses ways to restore a database within Azure SQL Database:

You won’t have the ability to use the same name of the restoring database and the database that you want to replace; if you try you get the screen shot below: To get around this I think you would need to drop the old one once the new one has restored then do a rename.

This is a big difference compared to the on-prem version, so be sure to practice this before you find yourself in a crisis.

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Migrating To Azure SQL Database

Published 2016-09-16 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Fal discusses BACPACs, DACPACs, and migrating on-prem databases to Azure SQL Database:

SQL Server Data Tools(SSDT) have always had a process to extract your database. There are two types of extracts you can perform:

  • DACPAC – A binary file that contains the logical database schema and possibly the data. This file retains the platform version of the database (i.e. 2012, 2014, 2016).

  • BACPAC – A binary file that contains the logical database schema and the data as insert statements. This stores the platform version, but is not locked into it.

Mike also walks through SqlPackage.exe.

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Create An Azure SQL Database Instance From Powershell

Published 2016-09-15 by Kevin Feasel

Arun Sirpal walks through the steps of setting up an Azure SQL Database instance and database using Powershell:

What I have done here is hard-code three parameters ( database edition, start IP address and end IP address) which for my situation won’t change but I have given the ability to pass in the environment name, SQL Server name and database name.

So a prompt will be presented to the user – here you should enter the relevant details and click enter.

It’s not that difficult to do, and the scripts themselves are probably faster than fumbling around the UI.

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Observations On Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Published 2016-09-15 by Kevin Feasel

Jeffrey Verheul is running this month’s T-SQL Tuesday.  Here is his contribution:

A thing that can make migrations to the cloud a bit more difficult, is that Azure SQL databases are basically a contained datastore (you would call it a “contained database” when you run it on-premise). This means that you (by default) can’t connect from one database to the other. This could mean that you need to rewrite your applications or stored procedures, or maybe even redesign your entire database/application/domain model.

This also means that running a stored procedure from the Ola Hallengren’s maintenance solution can only be done on the specific database, and not from the master database like the on-premise version does. These small challenges can be overcome, but it does mean code-duplication in your databases because the maintenance procedures need to be deployed to every single database.

Read on for more observations regarding Azure SQL Data Warehouse.

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Creating BACPAC Files

Published 2016-09-14 by Kevin Feasel

Kenneth Fisher needs a new BACPAC:

Why are we talking about it?

Well there are two reasons. First because I’m studying how to move databases from SQL Server to Azure SQL Database and back. My first blog on the subject was using the Deploy Database to Microsoft Azure SQL Database option to move a SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database.

Kenneth shows you how to do this through the UI as well as through SqlPackage.exe.

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