Azure

Scott Guthrie blogged yesterday about a raft of new changes to the Azure platform.

Of interest to SQL folk are really three main changes:

* SQL Reporting has made its way into the new portal (ie: you no longer have to flip back to the old portal to work with it. Hopefully Data Sync will do the same soon).

* Better options now exist for downloading blobs from Azure Storage. (This could include, for example, SQL Server backups made using BACKUP TO URL).

2013-03-06

I recorded another podcast today with Thomas LaRock, aka SQL Rock Star.

In this show, Tom and I discussed the migration of many DBAs into architect roles, the challenges in constant learning (and useful resources for doing so), the hype around big data, the role of Windows Azure in our future, and upcoming PASS events.

It’s online now: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com

Enjoy!

2013-03-02

Sysprep has been a useful tool to allow the preconfiguration of SQL Server environments, along with the rest of the operating system. This can be very useful for templated Azure VMs as well as for on-premises systems and private clouds.

One of the limitations has been that not all SQL Server components were “sysprep-able”.

Another important change in CU2 for SQL Server 2012 SP1 is that more SQL Server components are now able to be “sysprepped”. In particular, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) can now be part of this.

2013-02-05

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about whether or not it’s a good idea to introduce new functionality in service packs (for SQL Server, the OS, and others). The concern is that it can invalidate testing, invalidate documentation, books, courseware, etc. However, it can also introduce much-needed features without having to wait for another version of the product. It’s been even-less likely that new functionality would be introduced in a cumulative update (or CU), which are basically a set of rolled-up hotfixes.

2013-01-27

One of the issues that is often raised with Windows Azure SQL Database is that you don’t get to pick the name of your server, so you end up with a bizarre name such as:

yy2l95dk1k.database.windows.net.

I can understand why the team did this. Apparently when they first set it up, they allowed you to pick your own server name, so everyone started registering Coke, Pepsi, etc. Not wanting to have yet another place for people to argue about name ownership, they quickly removed that ability. I’m glad they did.

2013-01-21

When I’ve been putting data into Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD) in the past, I’d normally been providing the dates from my own system. This week, I had the first time where I wanted to put a column default that provided a date in WASD. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t sure what timezone the date would be from. As I was using the Southeast Asia data centre (in Singapore), I was presuming the value would be based on Singapore’s timezone. So it was time to find out.

2013-01-20

Hi Folks,

I have to say that I’m really impressed by the rate at which the Windows Azure Mobile Services team is rolling out updates and samples. In particular, it’s good to see a new sample for using Geolocation, given how common a requirement that is in mobile apps today. It’s worth checking out the following:

·         New Code Samples page on WindowsAzure.com

·         Updated WindowsAzure.com Tutorials and Resources page that includes new tutorials and related videos from the new Windows Azure Mobile Services channel 9 series

2013-01-11

While the level of compatibility of Windows Azure SQL Databases is high, there are a number of things that need to be dealt with differently, compared with how they are done with on-premises SQL Server.

An example of this, today I needed to know how full one of my databases was. I wanted to know how much space I had used but also to know what the limit was. My first attempt was the usual system views such as:

2013-01-03

Scott Guthrie posted about the Azure-related changes that have happened over the last few days.

Of particular interest to me was that Data Sync was now in the new HTML portal, and that the Azure store now works in a bunch more countries.

Generally I like the newer HTML portal but I’m still finding that it applies different validation rules to SQL passwords than Windows Azure SQL Database itself does. That’s a pain as I still have to use the older portal.

2012-12-27

I was really excited about Windows Azure SQL Reporting being released. That lasted until I saw the pricing. If I just deployed a server and didn’t use it, the price was 89c per hour for up to 300 reports per hour. What many people didn’t understand is that the price applied whether or not you used the reporting server.

That meant that the minimum price for deploying a server was 89c x 24 hours x 365 days = $7796.40 per year.

2012-12-21