How to connect our C# application in Azure October 30, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Azure is a simple and cheap way to have a Database. You can rent your Azure Database of 2 GB per 5 USD per month. That is a very cheap price. You can also administer your Database from your Android or your iPhone, which is very interesting. It is also possible to create your Windows Application using Visual Studio and connect to SQL Azure. In this new chapter, we are going to create Windows application in C# and connect to a SQL Azure database. We are going to retrieve the information of a table stored in Azure in our Windows application. Read more »
How to work with Visual Studio and VM databases in Azure September 24, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction In this new article, we will use Visual Studio to connect to a SQL Server Database Installed in a Virtual Machine in Azure. Visual Studio is one of the most popular development tools in the world and connecting to Azure with Visual Studio is a very common need. We will modify an existing SQL Server table in Azure from Visual Studio. Later we will create a stored procedure and finally, we will create an inline table-valued function. Read more »
Working with Visual Studio and SQL Azure databases September 21, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction In this chapter, we will work with Visual Studio to connect to SQL Databases in Azure. The first part of this chapter will be to create a Database in the Azure Portal and the second part will be to connect in Visual Studio and create some Database Objects. Read more »
Using the Azure Portal to monitor your Azure Machines with SQL Server installed September 17, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction In this new chapter, we will show how to use the Microsoft Portal to monitor the Virtual Machines with SQL Server Installed. We will show how to do it with the current Portal and the New Microsoft Azure Portal. We will check how to monitor performance, watch the logs, review the settings and change them. Read more »
Cloud Witness – A new feature to make our lives easier September 4, 2015 by Murilo Miranda In order to have a well-configured cluster we need to setup the quorum properly, but there’s more…Here is where the Cloud Witness comes to help. In this article, I’m going to present something that would be very useful if was already been released, but no, I need to anxiously wait for the next version of Windows Server to be released, in order to start implementing this. Even though, I’m going to share with you, SQL Shack reader, why I’m so excited with that small and simple feature. Read more »
Low cost disaster recovery solution using Azure August 31, 2015 by Murilo Miranda We already talked a lot about Azure and hybrid deployments on this. In order to better understand this article I suggest the reading of the article “Azure Blob Storage – Placing database files in the cloud”, as the presented solution will be based on the same approach. Read more »
Using MS Excel to access to a relational SQL Database in Azure August 14, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction There are great Microsoft tools to access to SQL Server in Azure. However, as a Database Developers and Administrators we need to help the end user to access to the information using a familiar and intuitive interface. Most of the end users have a good knowledge in MS Excel. That is why it is recommended to connect our SQL Azure database to Excel. That way, the end user will be able to easily create reports, charts and generate useful information. In this chapter, we will show how to connect to SQL Azure using Microsoft Excel. Read more »
The DBAs guide to stretch database August 11, 2015 by Brian Bønk Rueløkke One of the new features in SQL Server 2016 – and there is a lot – is the ability to stretch the on premise databases to an Azure environment. This blogpost will cover some of the aspects of this – including: Primarily setup – how to get started Monitoring state of databases that are in ‘stretch mode’ Daily work with stretch databases Backup – what’s good to know Read more »
Stretch Database – The art of extend to reduce August 7, 2015 by Murilo Miranda Let’s continue the hybrid saga! After two articles talking about the Azure Blob Storage and what we can do using it, it’s time to check an alternative solution, that does the same of what was presented in the last article (a Hybrid Database used as archival solution for who didn’t read). This time we are not using the Azure Blob Storage, but we are still using Azure! The feature is…Stretch Database Read more »
Azure Blob Storage – Literally a Hybrid database deployment August 4, 2015 by Murilo Miranda In continuation to our hybrid deployment series, we will check few more options in order to integrate on-premises and Azure, using of course SQL Server. In the last article we talked about Azure Blob Storage and how to use this service to store a SQL Server database entirely there. Meaning that we can have our instance in our datacenter, see the server in front of you, and still have your database stored in the cloud, with your data and log files out of your disks. Read more »
Azure Blob Storage – Placing database files in the cloud July 31, 2015 by Murilo Miranda Do you know that since SQL Server 2012 you can have your entire database stored in Azure, even if you have your server on-premises? This article will introduce you to this capability, showing the basic steps to allow your instance to be in contact with your Azure Blob Storage Account. Read more »
Using PowerShell to monitor your Azure Machine July 17, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction In earlier chapters, I show you how to create your Virtual Machine in Azure using Power Shell. In this new chapter, I will show you how to get information about your VM machine already created. We will use PowerShell cmdlet commands to retrieve the information. Read more »
Bcp and linked servers to Azure July 13, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction Sometimes, we need to use the command line to copy tables using the command line. In this new chapter, we will use the BCP command to copy tables from a local machine to the SQL Server in Azure. The BCP is a very fast bulk copy tools used for this purpose. We will also learn how to create a Linked Server in our local machine to Azure. The Linked Servers are very powerful features of SQL Server to connect SQL Server to different Data Sources like Excel, MS Access, Oracle, MySQL, and several databases. In this example, we will connect to SQL Azure. Read more »
Backups to Azure – How can I do this? July 3, 2015 by Murilo Miranda With the evolution of the Cloud, specifically talking about Azure, SQL Server team started to take advantage of the new opened horizon. We already discussed pros and cons of send backups to Azure, now let’s check how to do this! Following the “Hybrid Scenarios series”, we already discussed about the connectivity options, and pros and cons of store our backup files in Azure. In this article, we will specifically talk about the two options that we currently have, involving Azure: Blob Storage and Managed Backups. Read more »
Backups to Azure – Why I would do this? July 2, 2015 by Murilo Miranda With the evolution of the Cloud, specifically talking about Azure, SQL Server team started to take advantage of the new opened horizon. In this article we will discuss about backups. What are the pros and cons of store your backup files in Azure? Read more »
SQL Server + Azure: Introduction to Hybrid scenarios July 1, 2015 by Murilo Miranda We hear a lot about hybrid SQL Server environments, but how to integrate my datacenter with Azure? Check this article and you will have a simple and effective explanation about the connectivity option! Read more »
How to use PowerShell to create a SQL Virtual Machine in Azure June 4, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction The first time that you create your VM in Azure manually using the UI is a very pleasant experience. However, when you have hundred and sometimes thousands of computers it is extremely exhausting and boring to create and configure it. With PowerShell, it is possible to automate several administrative tasks and create scripts to automatically create VMs, enable ports, download and create remote desktop files, administer services, etc. In this new chapter, we will show how to create a Virtual Machine in Azure with SQL Server installed using PowerShell. Read more »
How to work migrate backups, files and scripts to/from the cloud using the command line May 26, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction Sometimes we need to move our local files, SQL scripts, backups from our local machine to Azure or vice versa. This can be done manually by accessing to Azure and using a browser, but there are other methods to automatically do this. This article describes the Microsoft Azure Storage Tool. This is a command line tool used to upload data to Azure from a local machine or to download data from Azure to our local machine. The article will describe step by step how to work with this tool. Read more »
How to work handle SQL Azure Databases with PowerShell May 5, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction PowerShell is a shell used specially to automate administrative tasks. It is an incredible tool used to programmatically automate tasks like SQL Server tasks, Exchange tasks, Windows tasks, etc. It is very useful to integrate different Microsoft and sometimes non-Microsoft programs. In this new tutorial, we will show how to install PowerShell for Azure and then how to use it. We will create some databases, edit database properties and retrieve database information using PowerShell. Read more »
How to work with the command line and Azure to automate tasks April 20, 2015 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction The sqlcmd is a very powerful tool to run SQL Server scripts, T-SQL commands. It is also very useful in disaster recovery situations like restoring the master database. The sqlcmd can also be used in the Cloud, specifically with SQL Server Azure. In this new article, we will describe how to connect from a local machine to an Azure Virtual Machine (VM) with SQL Server Installed using sqlcmd. Read more »
