Microsoft Azure SQL® ™

Database Step by Step

Leonard G. Lobel
Eric D. Boyd
PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399
Copyright © 2014 by Leonard G. Lobel and Eric D. Boyd
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
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 To my partner of 20 years, Mark, and our children, Adam, Jacqueline, Joshua,
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—Leonard Lobel

For my loving wife, Shelly, and our wonderful boys, Jaxon and Xander.
—Eric Boyd

This page intentionally left blank
Contents at a glance
Introduction xiii

CHAPTER 1 Getting started with Microsoft Azure SQL Database 1

CHAPTER 2 Configuration and pricing 31
CHAPTER 3 Differences between SQL Server and Microsoft
Azure SQL Database 57
CHAPTER 4 Migrating databases 63
CHAPTER 5 Security and backup 97
CHAPTER 6 Cloud reporting 123
CHAPTER 7 Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync 173
Designing and tuning for scalability and high
CHAPTER 8
performance 217
CHAPTER 9 Monitoring and management 261
CHAPTER 10 Building cloud solutions 289

Index 357
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1 Getting started with Microsoft Azure SQL Database 1

Cloud computing: The concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Instant dynamic provisioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Microsoft Azure cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Getting signed up for SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Creating a Microsoft account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Creating a Microsoft Azure subscription. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Creating a server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Creating a SQL Database instance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Using the SQL Database management portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Designing tables and relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Inserting data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Querying the database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Exploring additional portal capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Chapter 2 Configuration and pricing 31

Using the Microsoft Azure platform management portal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Creating a new database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Setting firewall rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Obtaining connection strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Deleting a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Using SQL Server Management Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Connecting to SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Creating a new database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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vii

 Changing the database edition and maximum size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Deleting a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using PowerShell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Installing the Microsoft Azure PowerShell cmdlets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment. . . . . . . . . 46
Configuring PowerShell for your Microsoft account. . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Creating a new server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Creating a new database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Deleting a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Budgeting for SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
SQL storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Client bandwidth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Backup storage space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Backup storage bandwidth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Optimizing your costs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Configuring the database edition and size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Chapter 3 Differences between SQL Server and

Microsoft Azure SQL Database 57
Size limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Connection limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Unsupported features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Chapter 4 Migrating databases 63

Making the case for data migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Migrating data using Transact-SQL scripts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Setting up a local SQL Server database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Creating the T-SQL scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Generating T-SQL scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
SQL Data-Tier Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Creating a Microsoft Azure Storage account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exporting a BACPAC to Microsoft Azure Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Importing a BACPAC to Microsoft Azure SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . 77

viii Contents
 SQL Server Bulk Copy (bcp). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Migrating Schema. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Exporting data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Importing data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
SQL Database Migration Wizard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Downloading the tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Migrating a database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Chapter 5 Security and backup 97

Addressing major cloud concerns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Security responsibilities of the public cloud vendor. . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Shared security responsibilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Security in Microsoft Azure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Securing SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Creating a SQL Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Configuring SQL Database Firewall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Authenticating and authorizing users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Backing up SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Copying a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Monitoring the progress of a database copy operation. . . . . . . . . 113
Exporting a BACPAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Importing a BACPAC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Scheduling BACPAC exports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Chapter 6 Cloud reporting 123

Creating a SQL Server Reporting services virtual machine. . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Creating the virtual machine from the image gallery. . . . . . . . . . . 126
Configuring SSRS in the virtual machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Opening firewall access to the report server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Creating the sample database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Using Report Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Installing Report Builder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Creating a report using Report Builder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

ix
Contents
 Using Visual Studio Report Server projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Installing AdventureWorks2012 for SQL Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Installing SSDT Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012. . . . . 154
Creating a report using Visual Studio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Implementing report security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Shutting down the SSRS virtual machine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

Chapter 7 Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync 173

Getting to know SQL Data Sync. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Exporting data from SQL Server to SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Importing data from SQL Database to SQL Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Sharing data between multiple locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Scaling out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Creating the SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Working with SQL Data Sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Creating a sync group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Creating sync rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Running a manual sync. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Establishing conflict resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Creating an automated sync schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Creating a local SQL Server database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Creating a sync agent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Pitfalls and best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

Chapter 8 Designing and tuning for scalability and

high performance 217
Achieving high performance in the cloud. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Creating a RESTful web API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Creating the sample database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Creating a new solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Creating an ASP.NET Web API project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Adding an Entity Framework Code First Web API
controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Testing the Wine Web API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

x Contents
 Adding an ADO.NET Web API controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Testing the Customer Web API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Managing SQL Database connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Opening late, closing early. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Pooling connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Recovering from connection faults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Adding the Transient Fault Handling Application Block. . . . . . . . . 235
Using the Transient Fault Handling Application Block
with ADO.NET. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Using the Transient Fault Handling Application Block
with Entity Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .239
Reducing network latency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Keeping services close. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Minimizing round trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Effectively using SQL Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Using the best storage service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Optimizing queries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Scaling up SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Partitioning data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Scaling out with functional partitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Scaling out with shards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260

Chapter 9 Monitoring and management 261

Creating the sample database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Monitoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Using the management portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Microsoft Azure Service Dashboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
SQL Database management portal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Dynamic management views and functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Programming the Service Management REST API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .288

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Contents
 Chapter 10 Building cloud solutions 289
Creating the SQL Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Extending the SQL Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Creating a new solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Creating a SQL Server Database project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Setting the target platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Importing from SQL Database into the project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Adding a new column to the Wine table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Deploying the project to Microsoft Azure SQL Database . . . . . . . 301
Creating the Order table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Creating stored procedures for the Order table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Creating the data access layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Introducing the Entity Data Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Creating the Data Access Layer project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Creating an Entity Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Creating the website. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Creating an ASP.NET web application project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Referencing the data access layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Creating the user interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Testing the website locally. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Deploying the website to Microsoft Azure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Creating the ASP.NET Web API services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Adding a Web API controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Testing the Web API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Deploying the Web API. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Creating the Windows Phone application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Installing the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Creating the Windows Phone Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Adding Json.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Creating the App’s main page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Testing the Windows Phone application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Index 357

What do you think of this book? We want to hear from you!

Microsoft is interested in hearing your feedback so we can continually improve our
books and learning resources for you. To participate in a brief online survey, please visit:

microsoft.com/learning/booksurvey

xii Contents
Introduction

M icrosoft Azure SQL Database is the cloud version of Microsoft SQL Server, which
is Microsoft’s well-established on-premises relational database engine platform.
Despite some noteworthy differences, SQL Database (the short name for Microsoft
Azure SQL Database) is largely compatible with SQL Server, so for the most part, any
experience you have working with SQL Server can be directly and immediately applied
to SQL Database. If you are a software professional looking to consider the cloud as a
platform for the database in your next application, SQL Database can be just the right
tool for you. And if you want to get up to speed quickly with this emerging platform,
with or without SQL Server experience, this is just the right book for you.

Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step by Step provides an organized walkthrough of

the SQL Database platform. Our goal was to produce an end-to-end treatment of SQL
Database that balances coverage and depth. In the first chapter, you will quickly create
your first SQL Database on Microsoft Azure. By the last chapter, you will create a full
multitiered solution in the cloud—including a website and a Windows Phone 8 app—
all layered on top of SQL Database. And in every chapter in between, you will explore
other facets of SQL Database and many of its orbiting technologies. SQL Database is
a huge topic, but we carefully crafted each chapter to tackle one piece at a time, with
easy-to-follow procedures that put digestible concepts to immediate applied use. Your
knowledge will build in each chapter, as you learn about configuration, migration,
­security, backup, reporting, and more.

One big difference between on-premises software and cloud services is that the
latter can be updated and enhanced much more frequently than the former, given that
no installation or customer infrastructure is required in the cloud case. Cloud services
are subject to frequent changes in pricing as well. As such, features, limitations, costs,
the tooling user interface, or even the branding of Microsoft Azure SQL Database, as
described in this book, may have evolved by the time you read it. For example, shortly
before going to press, the platform formerly branded as Windows Azure was changed
to Microsoft Azure. (Although the book title and textual references were updated
­accordingly, many screen shots still show the older name, Windows Azure.) Regardless
of the potential for such changes, the principles and techniques covered throughout
this book will help you achieve comfort with and mastery of Microsoft Azure SQL
­Database.

xiii

 Note  As Azure evolves, we evolve with it. Even as this first edition goes to
press, we are busy planning the next edition with expanded coverage of the
recently announced Basic, Standard, and Premium editions. These new ser-
vice tiers (which have limited preview availability at the time of this writing)
can support larger and more scalable databases than the current Web and
Business editions offer. Our next edition will also be revised for the upcoming
release of a new management portal currently being developed by Microsoft.

Who should read this book

This book exists to help software developers and database professionals understand
the core concepts of Microsoft Azure SQL Database and its related technologies.
Many readers will have little or no prior experience with either SQL Database or SQL
Server, and that’s perfectly fine. This book starts with square one, and gets you off to
a good start even if you have no prior knowledge of SQL Server or relational database
­concepts.

The book is also useful for those familiar with on-premises SQL Server and are
interested in creating new applications to work with SQL Database, or those who would
like to migrate existing applications that currently work with on-premises SQL Server to
work with SQL Database as well.

Assumptions
No prior knowledge or experience with Microsoft Azure and cloud computing is
­assumed or required. Furthermore, although experience with Microsoft SQL Server is
certainly useful, that too is not required.

Several chapters involve .NET programming. Here, too, prior experience with
­ icrosoft Visual Studio and C# is helpful but not required. The procedures in these
M
chapters include complete code listings, and clear explanations of the code are
­provided.

xiv Introduction
This book might not be for you if…
This book might not be for you if you already have extensive knowledge and
­experience with SQL Database, and are seeking to delve deeper into internals or other
specialized focus areas not covered in this book. Still, this book contains useful infor-
mation even for experienced users. Therefore, we recommend that you take a quick
glance at the chapter descriptions in the next section. Doing so should help you quickly
determine if there are specific areas of interest we cover that you would like to learn
more about.

Organization of this book

This book is composed of ten chapters, each of which focuses on a different aspect
of Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Most readers will probably benefit by starting with
Chapter 1, but by no means does this book need to be read in any particular order.
Read it from start to finish if you want, or jump right in to just those chapters that
suit your needs or pique your interests. Either way, you’ll find practical guidance and
­walkthroughs to help get your job done with SQL Database.

■■ Chapter 1—Getting started with Microsoft Azure SQL Database  The

opening chapter gets you acquainted with the SQL Database platform. After a
brief overview of cloud computing with SQL Database, you’ll create a Microsoft
account (if you don’t already have one) and a Microsoft Azure subscription.
Then you will learn how to use the Microsoft Azure management portal to
­create servers and databases. You’ll move on to use the SQL Database man-
agement portal, where you’ll design tables, views, and stored procedures, and
then populate and query tables in the database. Absolutely no local tools are
required to follow along with the procedures in this chapter; all you need is a
web browser and Internet access.

■■ Chapter 2—Configuration and pricing  With the basics covered, this chapter
explains additional options for configuring SQL Database, beyond the browser-
based portals introduced in Chapter 1. You will learn how to connect to SQL
­Database using familiar local tools, such as SQL Server Management Studio
(SSMS) and SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) inside Visual Studio. You will also learn
how to configure and manage SQL Database using PowerShell, by downloading
the Microsoft Azure PowerShell cmdlets. The chapter concludes with an expla-
nation of how SQL Database pricing is structured on Microsoft Azure, and it
provides tips to help you budget for a SQL Database solution.

xv
Introduction
 ■■ Chapter 3—Differences between SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL
Database  Readers with prior SQL Server experience will want to know about
the important differences between the on-premises relational engine they are
familiar with and the SQL Database implementation on Microsoft Azure. This
brief chapter enumerates these differences and explains the rationale behind
them. Where possible, we suggest workarounds for SQL Server features that are
not supported in SQL Database.

■■ Chapter 4—Migrating databases  When building systems on Microsoft

Azure, there is often a need to migrate databases from existing on-premises
SQL Servers to SQL Database. There are numerous techniques and tools you
can use to migrate databases and data to SQL Database. In this chapter, you will
learn about and use Transact-SQL scripts, SQL Data-Tier Applications, bulk copy,
and the SQL Database Migration Wizard to migrate databases to SQL Database.

■■ Chapter 5—Security and backup  Security, availability, and disaster recovery

top the list of concerns when customers consider new data centers and public
cloud providers. In this chapter, you will learn about security in Microsoft Azure
and how to secure your SQL Database with firewall rules, as well as users and
permissions. In addition to gaining knowledge about security, you will learn how
to handle disaster recovery with SQL Database backup techniques.

■■ Chapter 6—Cloud reporting  When you have data in a database, it’s only a
matter of time before you also have reporting requirements related to that data.
And when that database is hosted in the cloud on Microsoft Azure, it’s only
natural to consider using the Azure cloud to host a reporting solution as well. In
this chapter, you will learn how to create an Azure virtual machine (VM) to host
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) in the cloud. (No prior SSRS experience is
needed.) Once the VM is configured, you will learn how to build SSRS reports
using two report authoring tools: Report Builder and SSDT Business Intelligence
for Visual Studio. After building and previewing reports locally, you will learn
how to deploy them to the VM for a complete reporting solution in the cloud.

■■ Chapter 7—Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync  In this chapter, you will learn
how to use the SQL Data Sync service available on Microsoft Azure to replicate
data between multiple databases. You will learn about the hub-and-spoke
architecture upon which the service is based, and see how SQL Data Sync can be
used to implement solutions for a variety of scenarios, including one-way or bi-
directional replication across a set of databases in multiple locations. The proce-
dures in this chapter walk you through the process of configuring the SQL Data
Sync service and creating sync groups that replicate between multiple databases

xvi Introduction
 hosted both in the cloud (on Microsoft Azure SQL Database) and on-premises
(using SQL Server). You will also learn how to establish a conflict-resolution strat-
egy and set up an automated synchronization schedule.

■■ Chapter 8—Designing and tuning for scalability and high perfor-

mance  Applications and systems intended for real production use need to
provide responsive experiences and good performance. In this chapter, you will
optimize and tune database performance for SQL Database. Next, you will im-
prove application reliability by managing database connections and connection
errors using both ADO.NET and Entity Framework. Finally, you will explore how
to scale databases in SQL Database using a special partitioning technique known
as sharding.

■■ Chapter 9—Monitoring and management  Services used by production

applications must provide monitoring and management capabilities. In this
chapter, you will learn how to monitor the health of SQL Database using the
management portal, the Service Dashboard, and dynamic management views
and functions. You will also learn how to automate SQL Database operations
programmatically, using the REST-based Service Management API.

■■ Chapter 10—Building cloud solutions  In the book’s closing chapter, you will
learn how to build a complete solution in the cloud on top of Microsoft Azure
SQL Database. Specifically, you will create a Visual Studio solution that includes
a SQL Server Database project, an Entity Framework data-access layer, ASP.NET
MVC, and ASP.NET Web API. The solution provides a website, web services, and
a Windows Phone 8 app with functionality for users to retrieve and update data
stored in SQL Database.

Conventions and features in this book

This book presents information using conventions designed to make the information
readable and easy to follow:

■■ Each procedure consists of a series of tasks, presented as numbered steps (1, 2,

and so on) listing each action you must take to complete the exercise.

■■ Boxed elements with labels such as “Note” provide additional information or

alternative methods for completing a step successfully.

■■ Text that you type (apart from code blocks) appears in bold.

xvii
Introduction
 ■■ A plus sign (+) between two key names means that you must press those keys at
the same time. For example, “Press Alt+Tab” means that you hold down the Alt
key while you press the Tab key.

■■ A vertical bar between two or more menu items (for example, File | Close) means
that you should select the first menu or menu item, then the next, and so on.

System requirements
At a minimum, there are no special system requirements for working with SQL
­Database. The Microsoft Azure management portal requires only a web browser and
Internet access. Similarly, the SQL Database management portal requires only a browser
with the Silverlight plug-in.

Some chapters walk you through procedures that use local tools—typically, SQL
Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Visual Studio 2013. To complete these proce-
dures, you will need to have those tools installed as well, which requires the following:

■■ One of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2,

­Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012.

■■ Visual Studio 2013, any edition. (Multiple downloads may be required if using
Express Edition products.)

■■ SQL Server 2012 Express Edition or higher, with SQL Server Management Studio
2012 Express or higher. (Included with Visual Studio, Express Editions require
separate download.)

Depending on your Windows configuration, you might require Local Administrator

rights to install or configure Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server 2012 products.

Chapter 4, "Migrating databases," and Chapter 7, "Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync,"
include procedures that require a local SQL Server instance on which you have permis-
sions to create a database. If you don’t have access to a local SQL Server instance, you
can install SQL Server Express Edition (the free version of SQL Server) by following the
instructions shown in the next section.

Finally, several individual chapters work with additional software that gets installed
locally. These chapters include detailed procedures for downloading and installing the
necessary software so that you can follow along with the rest of the chapter.

xviii Introduction
Downloads: SQL Server Express Edition
There are several SQL Server Express Edition downloads available on the Microsoft site,
and they are available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. You can choose to install just
the SQL Server Express database engine (and nothing else), or you can choose one of
two other (larger) downloads: Express With Tools (which includes SQL Server Manage-
ment Studio [SSMS]) or Express With Advanced Services (which includes SSMS, Full
Text Search, and Reporting Services). There are also separate downloads for SSMS and
LocalDB, but these do not include the SQL Server Express database engine needed to
host local databases.

To install the SQL Server Express Edition database engine, follow these steps:

1. Open Internet Explorer, and navigate to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/­

download/details.aspx?id=29062.

2. Click the large orange Download button.

3. Select the appropriate download for your system, as shown in Figure I-1:

a. For 64-bit systems, choose ENU\x64\SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe.

b. For 32-bit or 64-bit WoW systems, choose

ENU\x86\SQLEXPR32_x86_ENU.exe.

c. For 32-bit systems, choose ENU\x86\SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe.

Note  If you need to download SQL Server Management Studio

(SSMS) as well, choose the Express With Tools file instead, which is
the one that includes WT in the filename.

xix
Introduction
 FIGURE I-1  Downloading SQL Server 2012 Express Edition (64-bit version)

4. Click Next.

5. If you receive a pop-up warning, click Allow Once, as shown in Figure I-2.

FIGURE I-2  Temporarily allowing pop-ups to enable the download, if necessary

6. When prompted to run or save the file, choose Run. This starts and runs the
download.

7. If the User Account Control dialog appears after the download files are
­extracted, click Yes.

8. In the SQL Server Installation Center, click New SQL Server Stand-Alone
­Installation, as shown in Figure I-3.

xx Introduction
 FIGURE I-3  Choosing a new SQL Server installation

9. In the SQL Server 2012 Setup wizard, do the following:

a. On the License Terms page, select I Accept The License Terms and click
Next.

b. On the Product Updates page, allow the wizard to scan for updates, and
then click Next.

c. On the Install Setup Files page, wait for the installation to proceed.

d. On the Feature Selection page, Click Next.

e. Continue clicking Next through all the remaining pages until the
­Installation Progress page, and wait for the installation to proceed.

f. On the Complete page indicating a successful setup (shown in Figure I-4),

click Close.

xxi
Introduction
 FIGURE I-4  SQL Server Express installation in progress

Downloads: Code samples on the book’s companion

website
Many chapters have procedures in which you will write actual code. In most cases, there
is only a small amount of code, but you may still find it helpful to download the com-
pleted code listings from the book’s companion website. Doing so can help you work
through the procedures, particularly those few procedures that have a bit more code
than others. All the code found in this book can be downloaded at the following page:

http://aka.ms/AzureSQLDB_SBS

Installing and using the code samples

Simply download the zip file to your local machine and extract it. You will find one
­folder for the code in each chapter, although note that there is no code for Chapters 2
and 3. The code folders contain listing files that correspond to the listing numbers

xxii Introduction
 found in each of the chapters. Finally, the code folders for Chapters 6, 8, and 10 also
include the completed Visual Studio solutions for the exercises found in those chapters.

Acknowledgments
I was first asked to write a book on SQL Azure—back when it was still called SQL
Azure—nearly two years ago. It’s been a long road since then, and despite seismic
shifts both in the Azure product platform and in the book publishing ecosystem (not to
mention an unexpected curve ball or two), I am extremely delighted to finally publish!

This is my third technical book, and although each experience has been unique, I’ve
learned the same lesson in each case: I could not have even contemplated the challenge
without the aid of numerous other talented and caring individuals. These are folks who
deserve special recognition—people who lent their generous support out in so many
different ways that it’s impossible to mention names in any prescribed order.

So I’ll start with Andrew Brust. If not for Andrew (who himself is a well-established
leader in the software industry), I would never have started down the book-writing
path in the first place. I am grateful for our personal friendship, as well as our working
relationship writing books and presenting workshops together. These experiences truly
help me thrive and grow.

I’m also fortunate to have teamed up with my colleague and co-author Eric Boyd,
who produced four excellent chapters on several advanced topics. Eric is an extremely
talented software professional, whose expertise and passion for technology comes
through clearly in his writing.

Russell Jones, my pal at O’Reilly Media, gets special mention of course, because he’s
the one who asked me to write this book in the first place. I thank Russell, not only for
offering me the opportunity, but for his expert guidance and assistance during the
transition to Microsoft Press. More thanks go out to Roger LeBlanc for his ­copyediting
review, and to Scott Klein for his technical review. Special thanks as well to Devon
­Musgrave and Rosemary Caperton at Microsoft Press, and Steve Sagman of Waypoint
Press. Their guidance has been vital to the successful production of this book, and it has
been an absolute pleasure working with each one of them.

I would like to give special mention to the Microsoft MVP program, which was an
indispensable resource during the writing of this book. So thank you Microsoft, and to
my MVP lead Simon Tien as well, for his constant encouragement.

xxiii
Introduction
 This book could not have been written, of course, without the love and support of
my family. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my wonderful partner Mark, and our
awesome kids Adam, Jacqueline, Josh, and Sonny, for being so patient and tolerant with
me throughout this project.

And greatest thanks of all go out to my dear Mom, bless her soul, for always
­encouraging me to write with “expression.”

—Leonard Lobel

I have been developing software professionally for almost 20 years and I am grateful for
being blessed with deep interest and excitement for this industry, the ability learn and
understand what are sometimes very complex concepts, and the support of my family,
friends, mentors and peers throughout my career. Writing a book like this requires lots
of guidance and help from many people, and I have many people to thank.

First and foremost, I want to thank God for everything: for life, salvation, family,
friends, talents, abilities and everything.

Working on this project over the past year has been a lot of fun, but it has also been
a lot of work. My family has been extremely supportive, even when I had to block off
nights and weekends to write. I owe so much to my wife, Shelly, for everything that she
does for our family. And I’m so thankful for our two wonderful boys who enjoy sitting
next to me in my office and cuddling up next to me with my laptop in the living room,
when my evenings and weekends get occupied with writing.

In addition to family, I want to thank friends and co-workers who have also been
very supportive during this project, even when I bring my laptop to their living rooms,
kitchens and dining rooms so that I can write a few more words, paragraphs and pages.

I want to thank Lenni Lobel who invited me to join him on this project. Lenni has
been a fantastic co-author and has done a great job leading this project and driving it
to completion. His guidance, editing and feedback has been extremely valuable for me
personally and for the project. I’m also very appreciative of his patience throughout this
project.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to everyone at Microsoft and Microsoft Press
who have helped with this project both directly and indirectly, this list includes Scott
Klein, Dora Chan, Mark Brown, Devon Musgrave, Rosemary Caperton, Steve Sagman,
Conor Cunningham, the Azure CAT team, and so many more.

—Eric Boyd

xxiv Introduction
Errata, updates, & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion
­content. You can access updates to this book—in the form of a list of submitted errata
and their related corrections—at:

http://aka.ms/AzureSQLDB_SBS

If you discover an error that is not already listed, please submit it to us at the same
page.

If you need additional support, email Microsoft Press Book Support at

mspinput@microsoft.com.

Please note that product support for Microsoft software and hardware is not
­offered through the previous addresses. For help with Microsoft software or hardware,
go to http://support.microsoft.com.

We want to hear from you

At Microsoft Press, your satisfaction is our top priority, and your feedback our most
valuable asset. Please tell us what you think of this book at:

http://aka.ms/tellpress

We know you’re busy, so we’ve kept it short with just a few questions. Your answers
go directly to the editors at Microsoft Press. (No personal information will be request-
ed.) Thanks in advance for your input!

Stay in touch
Let’s keep the conversation going! We’re on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPress

xxv
Introduction
This page intentionally left blank
CHAPTER 3

Differences between SQL Server

and Microsoft Azure SQL Database
— Leonard Lobel

O ne of the most attractive aspects of Microsoft Azure SQL Database is that it shares virtually the
same codebase and exposes the same tabular data stream (TDS) as on-premises Microsoft SQL
Server. Thus, to a great extent, the same tools and applications that work with SQL Server work just
the same and just as well with SQL Database. Notice that we said to a great extent, because despite
their commonality, there are quite a few SQL Server features that SQL Database does not support.
In this brief chapter, we discuss how and why these two platforms differ from one another, and we
explain the SQL Database constraints you need to be aware of if you have previous experience with
SQL Server.

SQL Server and SQL Database differ in several ways—most notably, in terms of size limitations,
f­ eature support, and T-SQL compatibility. In many cases, these constraints are simply the price you
pay for enjoying a hassle-free, self-managing, self-healing, always-available database in the cloud.
That is, Microsoft cannot responsibly support features that impair its ability to quickly replicate, relo-
cate, and scale a SQL Database instance. This is why SQL Database places limits on database size and
doesn’t support certain specialized features, such as FILESTREAM.

Another common reason why a particular feature or T-SQL syntax might not be supported in
SQL Database is that it’s simply not applicable. With SQL Database, administrative responsibilities
are split between Microsoft and you. Microsoft handles all the physical administration (such as disk
drives and servers), while you manage only the logical administration (such as database design and
security). This is why any and all T-SQL syntax that relates to physical resources (such as path names)
are not supported in SQL Database. For example, you don’t control the location for primary and log
file groups. This is why you can’t include an ON PRIMARY clause with a CREATE DATABASE statement,
and indeed, why SQL Database does not permit a file group reference in any T-SQL statement. Plainly
stated, everything pertaining to physical resources (that is, infrastructure) is abstracted away from you
with SQL Database

Yet still, in some cases, a certain SQL Server feature or behavior might be unsupported merely
­because Microsoft has just not gotten around to properly testing and porting it to SQL Database.
Azure is constantly evolving, so you need to keep watch for updates and announcements. This small

57

 chapter is a great starting point, but the best way to stay current is by reviewing the “Guidelines and
Limitations” section of the SQL Database documentation on the MSDN website. (See http://msdn.
microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394102.aspx.)

Size limitations
With the exception of the free, lightweight Express edition of SQL Server, there is no practical ­upper
limit on database size in any edition of SQL Server. A SQL Server database can grow as large as
524,272 terabytes. (For SQL Server Express edition, the limit is 10 gigabytes.)

In contrast, SQL Database has very particular size limitations. As explained in Chapter 2,
“­Configuration and pricing,” you can set the maximum size by choosing between the Web and
­Business editions. With a Web edition database, you can set the maximum database size to either 1
or 5 gigabytes (GB). With a Business edition database, the maximum database size can range from 10
to 150 GB. The absolute largest supported database size is 150 GB, although partitioning strategies
can be leveraged for scenarios that require databases larger than 150 GB (as explained in Chapter 8,
“Designing and tuning for scalability and high performance”).

Note  At the time this book went to press, Microsoft announced the Preview availability of
SQL Database Premium. This is a more costly option than the standard Web and Business
editions of SQL Database (which have been rebranded as Basic and Standard), and it
­supports a maximum database size of 500 GB. As we ­explain in Chapter 8, SQL Database
Premium also lets you scale up for performance using dedicated CPU and memory.

Connection limitations
SQL Database is far less flexible than SQL Server when it comes to establishing and maintaining
­connections. Keep the following in mind when you connect to SQL Database:

■■ SQL Server supports a variety of client protocols, such as TCP/IP, Shared Memory, and Named
Pipes. Conversely, SQL Database allows connections only over TCP/IP.

■■ SQL Database does not support Windows authentication. Every connection string sent to SQL
Database must always include a login user name and password.

■■ SQL Database often requires that @<server> is appended to the login user name in
­connection strings. SQL Server has no such requirement.

■■ SQL Database communicates only through port 1433, and it does not support static or
­dynamic port allocation like SQL Server does.

■■ SQL Database does fully support Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS), which allows multiple
pending requests on a single connection.

58 Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step by Step

 ■■ Because of the unpredictable nature of the Internet, SQL Database connections can drop
unexpectedly, and you need to account for this condition in your applications. Fortunately,
several options are available to cope with this:

• The latest version of the Entity Framework (EF6, Microsoft’s recommended data access API
for .NET) has a new Connection Resiliency feature, which automatically handles the retry
logic for dropped connections.

• The Microsoft Enterprise Library Transient Fault Handling Application Block, covered
in Chapter 4, lets you define and implement retry strategies to deal with dropped
­connections.

• The ADO.NET SqlConnection class has an OpenWithRetry extension method that handles
the retry logic based on the default retry policy (which must be defined using the ­Microsoft
Enterprise Library Transient Fault Handling Application Block).

Unsupported features
This section lists many SQL Server capabilities that are not supported in SQL Database, and here we
suggest workarounds where possible. Again, because this content is subject to change, we recom-
mend you check the MSDN website for the latest information. (See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/
library/ff394102.aspx.)

■■ Agent Service  You cannot use the SQL Server Agent service to schedule and run jobs on
SQL Database.

■■ Audit  The SQL Server auditing feature records server and database events to either the
­Windows event log or the file system, and it is not supported in SQL Database.

■■ Backup/Restore  Conventional backups with the BACKUP and RESTORE commands are
not supported with SQL Database. However, SQL Database supports an automated backup
schedule that creates transactionally consistent backups in the form of BACPAC files created
in Azure storage. You can also create BACPAC files manually; however, this does not provide
transactional consistency for changes made during the export operation. To ensure transac-
tional consistency for a manual backup, you can either set the database as read-only before
exporting it to a BACPAC, use the Database Copy feature to create a copy of the database with
transactional consistency and then export that copy to a BACPAC file. See Chapter 5, “Security
and backup,” for more information.

■■ Browser Service  SQL Database listens only on port 1433. Therefore, the SQL Server Browser
Service, which listens on various other ports, is unsupported.

■■ Change Data Capture (CDC)  This SQL Server feature monitors changes to a database,
and it captures all activity related to change tables. CDC relies on a SQL Server Agent job to
­function and is unsupported in SQL Database.

CHAPTER 3  Differences between SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database 59
 ■■ Common Language Runtime (CLR)  The SQL Server CLR features (often referred to sim-
ply as SQL CLR) allow you to write stored procedures, triggers, functions, and user-defined
types in any .NET language (such as Microsoft C# or Visual Basic) as an alternative to using
­traditional T-SQL. In SQL Database, only T-SQL can be used; SQL CLR is not supported. Note,
however, that this limitation does not apply to SQL Server data types implemented inter-
nally using the CLR (such as xml, geography, and geometry, all of which are supported in SQL
­Database).

■■ Compression  SQL Database does not support the data-compression features found in SQL
Server, which you use to compress tables and indexes.

■■ Database object naming convention  In SQL Server, multipart names can be used to
­reference a database object in another schema (with the two-part name syntax schema.object),
in another database (with the three-part name syntax database.schema.object), and (if you
configure a linked server) on another server (with the four-part name syntax server.database.
schema.object). In SQL Database, two-part names can also be used to reference objects in
different schemas. However, three-part names are limited to reference only temporary objects
in tempdb (that is, where the database name is tempdb and the object name starts with a #
symbol); you cannot access other databases on the server. And you cannot reference other
servers at all, so four-part names can never be used.

■■ Extended events  In SQL Server, you can create extended event sessions that help to
­troubleshoot a variety of problems, such as excessive CPU usage, memory pressure, and
­deadlocks. This feature is not supported in SQL Database.

■■ Extended stored procedures  You cannot execute your own extended stored procedures
(which are typically custom-coded procedures written in C or C++) with SQL Database. Only
conventional T-SQL stored procedures are supported.

■■ File streaming  SQL Server native file-streaming features, including FILESTREAM and
­FileTable, are not supported in SQL Database. Instead, you can consider using Azure Blob
Storage containers for unstructured data files, but it will be your job at the application level to
establish and maintain references between SQL Database and the files in blob storage, though
note that there will be no transactional integrity between them using this approach.

■■ Full-Text Searching (FTS)  The FTS service in SQL Server that enables proximity searching
and querying of unstructured documents is not supported in SQL Database. However, there
is a third-party text search engine library available from Lucene that does work with SQL
­Database. For more information, visit http://www.lucene.net.

■■ Mirroring  SQL Database does not support database mirroring, which is generally a non-
issue because Microsoft is ensuring data redundancy with SQL Database, so you don’t need
to worry about disaster recovery. This does also mean that you cannot use SQL Database as a
location for mirroring a principal SQL Server database running on-premises. However, if you
want to consider the cloud for this purpose, you can host SQL Server inside an Azure virtual
machine (VM) against which you can mirror an on-premises principal database. This solu-
tion requires that you also implement a virtual private network (VPN) connection between

60 Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step by Step

 your local network and the Azure VM, although it will work even without the VPN if you use
server certificates.

■■ Partitioning  With SQL Server, you can partition tables and indexes horizontally (by groups
of rows) across multiple file groups within a database, which greatly improves the performance
of very large databases. SQL Database has a maximum database size of 150 GB (or 500 GB, for
the newly announced Premium edition) and gives you no control over file groups, thus it does
not support table and index partitioning.

■■ Replication  SQL Server offers robust replication features for distributing and synchronizing
data, including merge replication, snapshot replication, and transactional replication. None
of these features are supported by SQL Database; however, SQL Data Sync can be used to
­effectively implement merge replication between a SQL Database and any number of other
SQL Databases on Microsoft Azure and on-premises SQL Server databases. See Chapter 7,
“Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync,” for more information.

■■ Resource Governor  The Resource Governor feature in SQL Server lets you manage
­workloads and resources by specifying limits on the amount of CPU and memory that can be
used to satisfy client requests. These are hardware concepts that do not apply to SQL Data-
base, so the Resource Governor is unsupported.

■■ Service Broker  SQL Server Service Broker provides messaging and queuing features, and it
is not supported in SQL Database.

■■ System stored procedures  SQL Database supports only a few of the system stored
­procedures provided by SQL Server. The unsupported ones are typically related to SQL Server
features and behaviors not supported by SQL Database. At the same time, SQL Database
provides a few new system stored procedures not found in SQL Server that are specific to SQL
Database (for example, sp_set_firewall_rule).

■■ Tables without a clustered index  Every table in a SQL Database must define a clustered
index. By default, SQL Database will create a clustered index over the table’s primary key col-
umn, but it won’t do so if you don’t define a primary key. Interestingly enough, SQL Database
will actually let you create a table with no clustered index, but it will not allow any rows to be
inserted until and unless a clustered index is defined for the table. This limitation does not
­exist in SQL Server.

■■ Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)  You cannot use TDE to encrypt a SQL Database like
you can with SQL Server.

■■ USE  In SQL Database, the USE statement can refer only to the current database; it cannot be
used to switch between databases as it can with SQL Server. Each SQL Database connection is
tied to a single database, so to change databases, you must connect directly to the database.

■■ XSD and XML indexing  SQL Database fully supports the xml data type, as well as most
of the rich XML support that SQL Server provides, including XML Query (XQuery), XML Path
(XPath), and the FOR XML clause. However, XML schema definitions (XSD) and XML indexes
are not supported in SQL Database.

CHAPTER 3  Differences between SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database 61
Summary
In this brief chapter, you learned about the important differences between on-premises SQL Server
and SQL Database on Microsoft Azure. We explained the SQL Database limitations on size, as com-
pared to a virtually unlimited database size supported by SQL Server. We also discussed connection
limitations, and important considerations to keep in mind with respect to dropped connections, which
occur with relative frequency in SQL Database. The chapter concluded by enumerating the many SQL
Server features that are either unsupported or have limited support in SQL Database, and offered
workarounds where possible.

The information in this chapter will help you decide whether or not SQL Database is suitable for
your particular scenario. Of course, if you determine that it is not, always remember that you can run
on-premises SQL Server in an Azure VM (we show you how in Chapter 6). This IaaS approach provides
you with full SQL Server functionality in the cloud, compared to the PaaS approach of going with
SQL Database.

62 Microsoft Azure SQL Database Step by Step

This page intentionally left blank
Index

A physical distance from databases, 55, 179, 243

regulatory requirements, complying with, 99
abstraction, 3–4, 217, 313 repository pattern, 314
access control, 12, 35–38, 106–111, 170 scaling, designing for, 218
least privilege principle, 108–109, 111 tables, indirect access to, 307–312
with stored procedures, 307–312 volume purchase plan, 55
action methods, 321, 326–327, 338 ASP.NET MVC websites, 321–335
Active Directory, adding users, 170 ASP.NET Web APIs See Web API controllers; Web API
ADO.NET, 217 services; Web APIs
connection pooling, 234 attack surface, reducing, 108. See also security
data access layer, building, 312–313 auditing, 59, 99
database connections, managing, 234 authentication
Dataset objects and data adapters, 313 with management certificates, 281, 283
encapsulating, 239 selecting type, 41
raw objects, 312–313 SQL Database support for, 58
sharding with, 254–259 of users, 105–111
SqlConnection class OpenWithRetry extension method, Windows Integrated authentication, 170
59 authorization of users, 105–111, 170
transient fault handling, 237–238 automated BACPAC export schedule, 120–121
Web API controllers, building, 230–233 automated data synchronization schedules, 200–202
AdventureWorks database, installing, 151–154 Automated Export feature, 120–121
agent keys, 204 Azure See Microsoft Azure
Agent service, 59
agents, 174
aging policies, 56 B
allowed IP addresses, 12
See also firewall rules; SQL Database Firewall backup storage, 51–53
ALTER DATABASE statement, 44 backup-and-restore process, 59, 112–121
applications backups, 112–121
auditing, 99 automated, 59
building, 289–354 geo-replicated storage for, 55
in the cloud, 2 removal strategy, 55
connection faults, recovering from, 235–243 transactional consistency, 59
data synchronization, 179 BACPAC files, 30
geographic locations, 179, 243 for backups and restores, 112, 115–121
hackers, protecting from, 99 creating, 34–35, 59
health, monitoring, 261 data migration with, 70–80
load balancing, 179–180 database objects for export, 75
exporting, 34–35, 74–77, 115–117, 120–121

357
BACPAC files

BACPAC files (continued) layered architecture, 289–292

importing to SQL Database instance, 77–80 sample database, building, 292–293
transactional consistency of, 120–121 sample solution stack, 289–291
bandwidth-based fees, 9, 79 scaling, 2–3
basic authentication, 170 SQL Server Database project, creating, 295–296
bcp (SQL Server Bulk Copy), 80–86, 153 stored procedures, creating, 307–312
bi-directional binding, 350 table columns, adding, 300–301
bi-directional synchronization, 195–196 tables, creating, 305–307
blob containers, 73–74 target platform, setting, 296–297
blob storage, 54, 60, 115, 244–245 website, creating, 321–335
block blobs, 115 Windows Phone application, creating, 341–354
Browser role, 170 cloud storage
Browser Service, 59 browsing, 78
browsers Microsoft Azure Storage Account for, 35
content negotiation, 230 cloud-based Microsoft Azure SQL Database. See SQL
MVC websites, running from, 335 Database
reports, running from, 149–150, 168–169 CLR (Common Language Runtime), 60
Web APIs, testing, 228–230 clustered indexes, 61
Business Intelligence Developer Studio (BIDS), 151 code in the cloud, 2
Business Intelligence project templates, installing, 151, codebases, 57, 63–64
154–156 collations, 31–34
Business (Standard) edition of SQL Database, 55, 58 columns, table
adding, 300–301
check constraints on, 310
C null values, 300–301
command prompt, opening, 46, 83
Cache service, 244–245
Common Language Runtime (CLR), 60
caching, client-side, 244
compatibility issues, 88–94
catalog views, 280
compliance, 98–99
Change Data Capture (CDC), 59
compression, 60
change scripts, 301, 303
compute resources, 218, 234
check constraints, 310
load distribution across, 251–259
circular references, 338–339
partitioning, 250–259
class library projects, 314–315, 323, 324
reserving, 245
client agent service, 204
conflict resolution in data synchronization procedures,
client bandwidth pricing, 51
196–200, 214–215
client connections, allowing through firewall, 101–105
Connect To Server dialog, 41–42
client protocols, SQL Database support for, 58
advanced version, 110–111
clients, pushing data changes to, 174
Connect to Server errors, 109–110
client-side storage and caching, 244
connected development, 294
cloud computing, 1–4, 218
connection pooling, 234
cloud databases. See also databases; SQL Database
connection strings
location of, 215
@server requirement, 58
synchronizing, 182–202
entity, locating, 324
cloud reporting, 3, 123–171
passwords in, 316
Cloud Service Fundamentals in Windows Azure, 259
quick-start link to, 38–39
cloud solutions, 289–354
viewing, 38–39
ASP.NET Web API services, creating, 336–341
connections
data access layer, creating, 312–321
dropped, 59
delivery of, 3
faults, recovering from, 234–236
deploying to SQL Database, 301–304, 312
limitations on, 58–59, 234
importing into SQL Database, 297–300
managing, 234–243
iterative development cycle, 305

358
 databases

connections (continued) data access, 106–111, 170

monitoring with DMVs and DMFs, 277–280 encapsulating in stored procedures, 243–244,
multiple pending, 58 307–312
opening late, closing early, 234 with Entity Framework, 313
pooling, 234 over HTTP, 336
prevention of, 102 See also firewall rules performance, 217
specifying database, 110–111 securing, 98
throttling, 235 data access layer (DAL)
Transient Fault Handling Application Block, 235–243 ADO.NET, building with, 312–313
transient faults, 234–243 viewing, 278, 280 class library projects, creating, 314–315
console applications, creating, 283–287 creating, 290–291, 312–321
constraints, disabling during import operations, 85 referencing, 323–324
Content Manager role, 170 repository pattern, 314
content negotiation, 230 data aggregation with SQL Data Sync, 177
controllers, MVC, 321 data compression, 60
action methods, 326–327 data entry, 21–24
extending, 327 data importing See importing
Home controller, 321, 325–326 data migration, 63–86, 88–94
scaffolding, 325–326 data partitioning, 13, 58, 61, 250–259, 276
URLs, mapping to, 321 data redundancy, 60–61
controllers, Web API, 223–228, 230–233, 336–339 data sources, report, 125, 135, 138
copy database operation, 112–115 creating, 139–140, 158–159
COUNT function, 141 data stores, maintaining, 63–64
CREATE DATABASE statement, 43, 57 data synchronization See SQL Data Sync; sync groups;
CREATE DATABASE...AS COPY OF statement, 113–114 synchronizing data
credentials, user, 99 data validation, 307–312
CRUD actions, 336–337 database access, 12, 35–38, 106–111, 170, 307–312
custom authentication, 170 database administration, 30
custom code in reports, 124 See also SQL Database management portal
Custom Create database creation option, 31, 33–34 database collations, 31–34
customers of cloud vendors, security responsibilities, database connections See connections
98–99 Database Copy feature, 59, 112–113
CustomerShard class, 254, 256 database dynamic management views (DMVs), 275–278
cyber attacks, preventing, 98 database objects
developing, deploying, and managing, 70
mapping to .NET objects, 217
D naming conventions, 60
scripting, 68
DACPAC (Data-tier Application Component Package)
T-SQL scripts, generating for, 91–92, 94
files, 30, 70, 80
database queries See queries
DAL. See data access layer (DAL)
database-level permissions, 108–109
data
databases. See also on-premises SQL Server databases;
check constraints, 310
SQL Database
in cloud, 2
changes, discovering and replicating, 173
formatting in reports, 162–163
changing between, 61
geo-replication, 71
configuring, 44
incremental changes and updates, 63
connection strings See connection strings
referential integrity, 19
copying, 112–113
regulatory compliance, 99
creating, 13–15, 184
scripting, 69
creating in Microsoft Azure portal, 31–35
service layer over, 27
creating in PowerShell, 48–49
summarizing at database and report levels, 157
creating in SSMS, 43
validation rules, 307–312

359
databases

databases (continued) firewall rules, 104

creating with Service Management API, 283–287 tables, 81
current number, 265 Developer Command Prompt, 281
deleting, 40, 44, 50, 77 disaster recovery, 60–61, 97, 112–121
edition, 33–34, 44, 55–56 DMFs See dynamic management functions (DMFs)
exporting, 115–117 DMVs See dynamic management views (DMVs)
firewall rules See firewall rules DROP DATABASE statement, 44, 113
fragmentation information, 276 DROP TABLE statement, 81
free space, 56, 270 dropped connections, 59
importing, 31, 34–35, 297–300 dynamic management functions (DMFs), 275–280
incremental changes and updates, 63, 191 dynamic management views (DMVs), 275–280
index statistics, 276
I/O, locking, latching, and access method activity,
276 E
load distribution across, 251–259
EDM See Entity Data Model (EDM)
local, 64–66 See also on-premises SQL Server
EDMX files, 223, 313
databases
EF See Entity Framework (EF)
migrating to SQL Database, 63–94
endpoints, VM, 131–132
mirroring, 60–61
entities, 318–320, 325
monitoring, 263–280
entity connection string, 324
new query window, 43, 65, 106–107, 109
Entity Data Model (EDM), 313–314
offline management, 300
class library projects, creating, 314–315
operational metrics, 265–269
conceptual schema, 313
page and row-count information, 276
creating, 315–321
partitioning, 13, 250–259
data connection, 315
physical distance from applications, 243
data source, 316
populating, 21–24
.edmx files, 313
querying, 24–26 See also queries
entity classes, 318
reporting See reporting; reports
mapping, 313, 320
saving data to, 22
metadata, 313
scripting, 68 See also Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
model contents, 315
service layer over, 307
as model in MVC applications, 323–324
sharding, 13, 252–254
navigation properties of entities, 318–319
size, 31, 33, 44, 55–58, 270, 276–278
result bindings, 319
synchronizing, 173–174 See also SQL Data Sync;
storage schema, 313
synchronizing data
stored procedures, 317, 319–320
transactional consistency, 112
tables, selecting, 317
updating, 194–195
version setting, 317
upgrading to SQL Database Premium, 249–250
Entity Data Model (EDM) designer, 223
usage metrics, 265–269
Entity Framework (EF), 217
varbinary(max) or image file storage, 54
Code First feature, 223–228, 313
waits statistics, 276
Connection Resiliency feature, 59
Dataset objects and data adapters, 313
conventions, 224
datasets, data synchronization, 188–191, 215
data access layer, building, 312–321
datasets, report, 135, 138, 140–143
data context, 226–227
Data-tier Application Component Package (DACPAC)
database first approach, 313
files, 30, 70, 80
database initialization strategy, 224, 228
Data-Tier Applications (DACs), 70, 74–77, 80
database resource consumption, 234
data-transfer pricing, 51
Entity Data Model, 313–314
dbmanager security role, 107
performance overhead, 217
deleting
pluralization naming strategy, 224–225, 227
data in Windows Phone 8 apps, 352
POCO (Plain Old CLR Object) classes, 223
databases, 40, 44, 50, 77, 113

360
 IP addresses

Entity Framework (continued) of applications, 179, 243

RESTful Web APIs, building, 218–228 of cloud databases, 215
schemas, mapping between, 314 of Microsoft Azure Storage account, 71
sharding, 259 pricing and, 51
Transient Fault Handling Application Block and, synchronization and, 176–179
239–243 geo-replication, 52–53, 55, 71
Visual Studio scaffolding feature and, 321 GET requests, 326
Web API controllers, adding, 226–227 GROUP BY clause, 140–141
Web APIs, creating, 225–228 GUI management tools, 261. See also Microsoft Azure
entity models, 223–224, 230 management portal; SQL Database management
error code 40544, 276 portal; SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT); SQL Server
errors, 109–110, 235, 276, 329–330 Management Studio (SSMS)
event tables, 280
exception handling, 329–331
ExecuteAction method, 239–243 H
execution dynamic management views (DMVs), 278–280
hackers, protecting against, 99
execution performance, monitoring, 277–280
hardware, hypervisor virtualization technology on, 2–3
execution speed, optimizing, 217
high availability, 112
Export Database feature, 115–117
horizontal partitioning, 251–259
Export Data-Tier Application wizard, 74–77
HTTP data access over, 336
exporting, 35, 83–84
HTTP requests and responses, 223, 230, 283–287, 326,
Automated Export feature, 120–121
351–352
BACPAC files, 115–117
hub databases, 174, 186
export files, 120–121
Huey, George, 86
extended events, 60
hypervisor virtualization technology, 2–3
extended stored procedures, 60
Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
binding features, 345
I
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), 3–4
F image file storage, 54
Import Database feature, 31, 77–80, 117–119
F5 key, 43
importing
fan-out queries, 256, 259
BACPAC files, 117–119
file streaming, 60
databases, 34–35, 77–80
firewall rules, 9, 12, 35–38, 48, 102–105
nonclustered indexes, triggers, constraints, 85
See also SQL Database Firewall
into SQL Database instance, 84–86
for local network access, 35–36
with SQL Server Integration Services, 63
quick-start link, 36
incremental changes and updates, 63
for remote IP address access, 35–36
index partitioning, 61
report server access, 130–132
index statistics, 276
foreign-key table relationships, 65, 306, 318–319
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), 3–4
forms-based authentication, 170
instance names of local SQL Server database, 64
FROM clause, 140–141
instance objects, 70
Full-Text Searching (FTS), 60
Internet Explorer, 150
fully qualified names, 134
See also browsers
functional partitions, 250–251
Internet hosting, cloud computing service level, 1
IP addresses

G allowed, 12, 35
current client IP address, 104
Generate And Publish Scripts wizard, 68–69 firewall rules for, 101–104
geographic region, 8–9 learning remote addresses, 37

361
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

J Queue storage, 244–245

scaling, 3 See also scalability
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), 336, 338–339 security, 99
Json.NET, 343–344 SQL Reporting, 123–124
staying current with, 57–58
storage services for nonrelational data, 244–245
L subscribing to, 7–8
Table storage, 244–245
language settings, customizing, 31
volume purchase plan, 55
latency, 9, 215, 243–244
Microsoft Azure Blob Storage, 35, 54, 60, 115, 244–245
least privilege principle, 108–109, 111
Microsoft Azure Cache, 244–245
legacy systems, data migration from, 63–94
Microsoft Azure cloud, 2–4
local machines, 2, 12
See also cloud computing; cloud solutions
See also servers
Microsoft Azure Customer Advisory Team, 235, 259
local networks, enabling database access, 35–36
Microsoft Azure datacenters, 2, 51, 55
local SQL Server databases, 64–68, 83–84
Microsoft Azure Management Application Programming
local sync agent, 204–211
Interface (API), 261
locks, monitoring, 280
Microsoft Azure management portal, 9, 31–40
logical administration, 57
BROWSE CLOUD STORAGE dialog box, 78
login user names @server requirement, 58
CONFIGURE link, 37
loginmanager security role, 107
connection strings, obtaining, 38–39
lookup data, client-side storage of, 244
copy database operation, monitoring, 114–115
Lucene text search engine library, 60
CREATE A SQL DATABASE SERVER link, 9–10
CREATE SERVER dialog, 10–11

M Custom Create database option, 33–34

database usage metrics, 265–266
maintenance, 4, 63–64 databases, creating, 31–35
malicious attack prevention, 98 databases, deleting, 40, 77
management, 99, 261, 275–287 databases, importing, 77–80
GUI tools for, 261 See also Microsoft Azure Export Database Settings dialog, 115–117
management portal; SQL Database management firewall rules, managing, 35–38, 102
portal; SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT); SQL Server IMPORT DATABASE dialog, 77–79
Management Studio (SSMS) local agent service, configuring, 207–208
management certificates, 281–283 logging in, 9
manual syncs, 191–196 main portal page, 9
mapping MANAGE URL link, 15–16
objects, 217 management certificates, 281–283
between schemas, 314 Microsoft Azure Storage account, creating, 71–74
stored procedures to entities, 319–320 monitoring with, 264–269
URLs to controllers and actions, 321 publish profile for websites, 333–334
master database, 102, 106–110, 134–135, 280 Quick Create database option, 31–33
matrixes, report, 157, 160–161 quick-start links for databases, 36
metadata, 244, 278 server usage overview, 264–265
Microsoft account, 5–7, 46–47 servers, creating, 9–11
Microsoft Azure, 1–4 SQL Data Sync configuration, 174
ASP.NET Web Application projects, deploying to, SQL Database management portal, accessing, 15,
331–335 192–193
authentication for, 281, 283 SQL Database Monitor page, 267–269
compute resources, scaling up, 218 SQL Database Premium, signing up for, 246–247
free trial subscription, 7–8 SQL Database Premium quota, requesting, 248
management certificates, 281–283 SQL Database Premium quota request status,
preview services, 120–121, 174, 246 248–249
pricing, 7, 9, 50–54, 79

362
 ORM (object relational mapping)

Microsoft Azure management portal (continued)

SQL Database servers, list of, 102–103
N
SSRS, configuring in VM, 128–130 naming conventions for database objects, 60
storage access keys, generating, 71 navigation properties of entities, 318–319
SYNC link, 188 .NET Framework 3.5, 153
VM endpoints, creating, 131–132 network bandwidth fees, 9, 51–53, 79
VMs, creating, 126–128 network latency, reducing, 243–244
websites, creating, 331–334 network round trips, minimizing, 243–244
Microsoft Azure PowerShell cmdlets, installing, 44–45 network traffic, reducing, 244
Microsoft Azure Service Dashboard, 269–270 new query window, 43, 65, 106–107, 109
Microsoft Azure Service Management API, 71, 281–288 Newtonsoft.Json assembly, 336, 343–344
Microsoft Azure services See services importing namespace for, 350–351
Microsoft Azure SQL Data Sync, 173–216 nonclustered indexes, 85
Microsoft Azure SQL Database See SQL Database nondeterministic behavior, 310
Microsoft Azure Storage, 35, 71–80 nonrelational data, 244–245
browsing, 78, 117–118 NuGet Package Manager, 235–236
geo-replication, 52 Json.NET, downloading and adding, 344
pricing, 51–52 numeric data, formatting in reports, 162–163
Microsoft Azure Traffic Manager, 179–180
Microsoft Azure Trust Center, 99
Microsoft Silverlight, 15–16, 82, 183, 341, 343, 351 O
Microsoft Visual Studio See Visual Studio
Object Explorer, 40, 42
Microsoft.AzureCat.Patterns.Data.SqlAzureDalSharded
object relational mapping (ORM), 217, 312
library, 259
See also Entity Framework (EF)
migrating data, 63–94
objects
migration wizard, 86–94
developing, deploying, and managing, 70
mirroring, 60–61
mapping to .NET objects, 217
models, entity, 223–224, 230
naming conventions, 60
Model-View-Controller (MVC) applications, 222–223,
packaging as DACPAC files, 70
323–331
scripting, 68
Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework, 291–292
T-SQL scripts, generating for, 91–92, 94
Model-View-Controller (MVC) websites, 321–335
offline projects, 294
Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern, 344
online transactional processing (OLTP), 178–179
monitoring, 261, 263–280
on-premises SQL Server databases, 64–66. See also
database operations, 265–266
databases
database size, 276–278
abstraction levels, 3
database usage, 265
BACPAC files, creating, 34–35
dynamic management views and functions, 275–280
instances, 1
metrics, displaying, 267–269
latency, 243
with Microsoft Azure management portal, 264–269
migrating to SQL Database, 63–94
Microsoft Azure Service Dashboard, 269–270
mirroring, 60–61
query performance, 271–275
nonrelational and binary data in, 244
sample database, creating, 261–263
size, calculating, 51
server usage, 264–265
sync agent, registering with, 209–211
services health, 269–270
sync group, adding to, 211–214
with SQL Database management portal, 270–275
synchronizing, 174–176, 202–215 See also
MSDN subscribers, Azure pricing for, 7
synchronizing data
multipart names for database objects, 60
on-premises SQL Server servers, 2
Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS), 58
See also servers
multitenant services, 98
ORM (object relational mapping), 217, 312
MVC. See Model-View-Controller (MVC) applications;
Model-View-Controller (MVC) websites

363
PaaS (Platform as a Service)

P data transfer, 51
file storage, 54
PaaS (Platform as a Service), 4, 218 geographic location and bandwidth pricing, 51
partitioning data, 58, 61, 250–259 online pricing calculator, 50
page and row-count information, 276 pricing structures, 7
sharding, 13, 251–259 storage, 50–51
password policy, 107 storage space, 51–52
passwords in connection strings, 316 support plans, 53–54
performance primary keys, 67
in the cloud, 218 primary transactional database, replicating, 178–179
of cloud reporting, 124 privacy, 98–99
of data access, 217 public cloud platforms See Microsoft Azure
database connections overhead, 234 public cloud vendors
latency, reducing, 243–244 auditing services, 99
optimizing and tuning, 217, 244–245 compliance certifications, 99
of queries, 245, 271–275 hackers, protecting against, 99
permissions, 108–111, 170 malicious attack prevention, 98
physical administration, 57 multitenancy management, 98
physical data centers, 98, 99 security responsibilities, 98–99
physical storage with PaaS, 4 publish process, 301–303, 312
Plain Old CLR Object (POCO) classes, 223–224, 230 .publishsettings file, 47
Platform as a Service (PaaS), 4, 218 PUT requests, 352
port 80, 130–132
port 1433, 58
port allocation, 58 Q
POST requests, 326, 352
PowerShell, 44–50 queries, 24–26
administrator credentials, 48 editing, 273
-Collation switch, 49 encapsulating, 27, 243–244
configuring for Microsoft account, 46–47 error code 40544, 276
context associated with server and credentials, 48 execution plans, 273–275
database collation, changing, 49 fan-out, 256, 259
database edition, changing, 49 memory grants, 278
database size, changing, 49 optimizing, 245
databases, creating, 48–49 performance, 271–275
databases, deleting, 50 query plan details, 272–273
databases, viewing, 49 query plans, cached, 278
-Edition switch, 49 query plans, showing, 278
firewall rules, creating, 48 running, 193–194
-Force switch, 50 in stored procedures, 141, 243–244
management, automating, 281 query code, 140–141, 157
master databases, 49 query filters, 25–26
-MaxSizeGb switch, 49 Queue storage, 244–245
server access, 47–48 Quick Create database creation option, 31–33
servers, creating, 47–48 quick-start links, 36, 38–39
PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), 46
PowerShell Microsoft Azure cmdlets, 44–45, 48, 49
Premium edition of SQL Database, 58, 245–250 R
preview release software, 120–121, 174, 246 RDL authoring tools, 125
pricing for Microsoft Azure .rdl files, 169
bandwidth, 9, 51–53, 79 .rdp files, 128
Blob Storage, 54 read-only permissions, 108–111

364
 schemas

records, aging policies, 56 Reporting Services See SQL Server Reporting Services
Red-Gate Data Compare, 63 (SSRS)
Red-Gate SQL Compare, 63 reports
redundancy, data, 60–61 bar charts, 164–166
reference databases, 174, 184, 186–187 creating with Report Builder, 137–150
referential integrity of data, 19 creating with Visual Studio, 156–162
regulatory requirements, complying with, 99 data source, 125, 135, 138–140, 158–159
relational data, storage in SQL Database, 244–245 dataset, 125, 135, 138, 140–143
relational databases, 250 date and time of execution, 138
See also databases; SQL Database deploying to SSRS, 135, 147–149, 166–168
reliability, 217, 234–244 drill-down capabilities, 163
Remote Desktop sessions, 128 executing, 146
remote IP addresses, enabling database access, 37–38 formatting, 162–163
replication, 61 layout, 125, 135, 143–145
Report Builder, 123, 125 matrixes in, 157, 160
browser, running report from, 149–150, 168–169 previewing, 145–147, 163
data sources for reports, 138–140 queries, defining, 159–160
datasets for reports, 138, 140–143 RDL format, 125
date and time of report execution, 138 running from browser, 149–150, 168–169
Getting Started dialog, 137 running locally, 145–146
images, adding to reports, 139 saving, 145
installing, 135–137 security, 170
launching, 137 summarizing data in, 157
layout of report, 143–145 title, 143
matrix control, 138–139 user role assignment, 170
previewing reports, 135, 145–147 repository pattern, 314
Report Data pane, 138–139 requests. See HTTP requests and responses
report parameters, defining, 139 monitoring with DMVs and DMFs, 277–280
reports, creating, 137–150 Resource Governor, 61
reports, saving and running locally, 145–147 REST services, 336
Row Groups and Column Groups panes, 139 RESTful Web APIs, 218–228
SSRS, deploying reports to, 147–149 restore database operations, 117–119
table control, 138–139 RetryPolicy class ExecuteAction method, 239–243
user interface, 138 round trips, minimizing, 243–244
Report Definition Language (RDL), 123 routing, 179
Report Designer, formatting data, 162–163 in MVC applications, 321
Report Manager, 130, 149, 170
report server, 124, 130–132
Report Server Database Configuration Wizard, 129–130 S
Report Server Project Wizard, 158–162
SaaS (Software as a Service), 4, 289
Report Server projects, 150–169
scalability, 2–4, 218, 245–250
reporting, 123–171
functional partitions, 250–251
Report Builder, 135–150
OLTP activity, separating from reporting activity, 184
requests, performance impact of, 179
partitioning for, 58
sample database, creating, 132–135
sharding, 251–259
security of reports, 170
synchronizing between multiple locations, 178–179
service URL, 149
SCC (source code control), 294–295
virtual directory, creating, 129
schemas, 156, 313
Visual Studio Report Server projects, 150–169
changing before migration, 80
VM, creating, 125–132
compare operations, 301–303
VM, shutting down, 171
deploying to SQL Database, 91, 94
mapping, 313–314

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schemas

schemas (continued) sessions, monitoring with DMVs and DMFs, 277–280

migrating, 77–83 Shard class, 254–256
referencing objects in, 60 sharding, 13, 251–259
scripting, 69 ShardRoot class, 254
storage, 313 Software as a Service (SaaS), 4, 289
searching, 60 source code control (SCC), 294–295
security, 97–121, 170, 216 spoke databases, 174
firewall, 101–105 See also SQL Database Firewall SQL Data Sync, 61, 173–216
users, authenticating and authorizing, 99, 105–111 automated sync schedules, 200–202
server certificates, 61 best practices, 215–216
server logins, 105–107 clients, 174
server-level permissions, 107–108 conflict resolution, 196–200
server-level principals, 106–107 direction settings, 187
server-level security roles, 107–108 exporting data from SQL Server to SQL Database,
servers, 2, 8–12, 47–49, 183 175
accessibility to cloud services, 10 importing data from SQL Database to SQL Server,
authentication method, 41 175–176
firewall settings, 12, 35–38, 102, 103 See also firewall incremental change tracking, 191
rules; SQL Database Firewall manual syncs, 191–196
fully qualified names, 41 multiple cloud databases, synchronizing, 178–180
geographic region, 8–9 multiple locations, sharing data between, 176–177
health, monitoring, 263–280 one-way and two-way synchronization, 174
instance names, 64 performance, 215
physical access, securing, 98 reference databases, 174
PowerShell access, 47–48 sample database, creating, 180–182
usage, viewing, 264–265 security measures, 216
Service Broker, 61 SQL Server on-premises database, creating, 202–203
service levels, 3 sync agents, 204–215
Service Management API, 281–288 sync groups, 174, 182–188
service outages, 269 sync rules, 188–191
services, 2–4 Traffic Manager and, 179–180
Agent service, 59 SQL Database, 1
Allowed Services list, 105 applications, co-locating with, 55
asynchronous service calls, 351 Automated Export feature, 120–121
auditing, 99 backing up, 112–121
Browser Service, 59 Business edition, 55, 58
Cache service, 244–245 communication port, 58
client agent service, 204 comparison to SQL Server, 57–62
data center regions, 243 connecting from SSMS, 41–42
geographic region, 8–9 connection limitations, 58–59
health, monitoring, 261, 269–270 constraints of, 57
local agent service, 207–208 cost-related items, 50–56
Microsoft Azure services, 105, 120–121, 174, database connections, managing, 234–243
244–246 editions, switching between, 13
multitenant, 98 exporting data See exporting
outages, 269 firewall rules See firewall rules
reporting See SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Generally Available features, 120
REST services, 336 high-availability features, 112
Service Broker, 61 importing, 297–300 See also importing
Service Management API, 281–288 Microsoft account, 5–7
SQL Server Integration Services, 63 Microsoft Azure subscription, 7–8
Web API services, 336–341 migrating databases to, 63–94

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 SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

SQL Database (continued) SQL Database Management REST API, 105

monitoring health and usage, 263–280 SQL Database Migration Wizard, 87–94
monthly charges, 56 See also migrating data
networking requirements, 101 SQL Database servers
online pricing calculator, 50 See also servers
as PaaS solution, 4 AdventureWorks database, deploying to, 153
performance, 244–245 See also performance Allow Windows Azure Services To Access The Server
port number, 42 option, 11, 105
Premium edition, 55, 58, 249–250 connecting to using SQL Database Migration
Preview features, 120–121 Wizard, 91–92
pricing, 50–56, 215 databases, deleting from, 77
SaaS solutions, 4 master database, 106
scaling up, 245–250 permissions, 107–109
scripts compatible with, 69 SQL Database Premium quota, adding, 248
securing, 100–111 See also security SQL Database Service Dashboard, 270
signing up for, 5–8 SQL Data-Tier Applications, 70, 74–77, 80
size limitations, 57–58 SQL Server, 1
sizes, switching between, 13 See also on-premises SQL Server databases
SQL Service Database projects, deploying to, exporting data, 175
301–304, 312 Express edition, 58, 64
synchronization See SQL Data Sync; synchronizing Express With Advanced Services edition, 126
data hosting in Azure virtual machines, 3, 60–61
unsupported features, 59–61 importing data, 175–176
upgrading to SQL Database Premium, 249–250 vs. SQL Database, 3–4, 57–62
Web edition, 31, 55, 58 synchronization service, 174 See also SQL Data Sync
SQL Database APIs, 281 SQL Server Authentication, 41, 105
SQL Database Firewall, 101–105, 184 SQL Server Bulk Copy (bcp), 80–86, 153
See also firewall rules SQL Server Data Tools For Visual Studio 2012, 158
SQL Database instances, 13–30, 100–101 SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), 41, 151
BACPAC files, importing, 77–80 BACPAC file import restrictions, 80
importing data into, 84–86 bi-directional editing, 300–301
naming, 79 Business Intelligence add-in for Visual Studio, 123
server for hosting, 79 Business Intelligence project templates, installing,
SQL Database management portal, 15–17 151, 154–156
accessing from Microsoft Azure portal, 192–193 connected development, 294
ad-hoc query window, 24–25 DACPAC files, defining and deploying, 30
connections and sessions, monitoring, 279–280 DACPAC files, importing into, 80
data entry, 21–24 database projects, testing, 295
database administration features, 30 databases, creating, 180–182, 292–293
database size, checking, 277–278 disconnected development, 294
database summary page, 270–271 table designer, 300–301
dropping and re-creating databases, 82 T-SQL scripts, building and running, 64
foreign-key designer, 20 SQL Server Database projects
logging in, 16, 82 creating, 295–296
monitoring performance and usage with, 270–275 database definition, 295
Query Performance page, 271–272 dbo folder, 300
Query Plan Details area, 272–273 deploying, 301–305, 312
stored procedures, creating, 27–29 importing from SQL Database, 297–300
Summary view, 17 offline changes, 305
table designer, 18–20 target platform, setting, 296–297
T-SQL scripts, executing, 70 SQL Server instances, 65–66, 202–203
views, creating, 27 SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), 63

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SQL Server Management Objects (SMO)

SQL Server Management Objects (SMO), 40–41 sync agents, 204–215

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), 40–44 sync groups, 174, 182–189, 192
advanced Connect to Server dialog, 110–111 conflict resolution behavior, 174, 196–200, 214–215
Connect To Server dialog, 41–42, 64–65 on-premises SQL Server databases, adding, 211–214
Database Engine, connecting to, 110 ready status, 187, 191
databases, configuring, 44 scheduling syncs, 200–202, 215
databases, creating, 43 sync loops, 215
databases, deleting, 44 sync rules, 188–191
downloading, 40 sync loops, 215
exporting Data-Tier Applications, 74–77 sync rules, 188–191
fully qualified server names, 38, 41 synchronizing data, 215
Generate And Publish Scripts wizard, 68 automated schedules, 200–202
graphical designers and dialogs support, 40–41 conflict resolution, 196–200
launching, 41, 65, 134 costs, 179
new query window, 43, 65 dataset, defining, 188–191
Object Explorer, 40 direction settings, 187
server logins, creating, 106–107 exporting data from SQL Server to SQL Database,
sharded databases, creating, 252–254 175
SQL Database, connecting to, 41–42 importing data from SQL Database to SQL Server,
T-SQL scripts, generating automatically, 68–70 175–176
T-SQL scripts, running, 65 manual, 191–196
T-SQL scripts, viewing, 69–70 multiple locations, sharing data between, 176–177
SQL Server Object Explorer, 304 one-way and two-way, 174–177
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), 3, 123–124 with SQL Data Sync, 61, 173 See also SQL Data Sync
authentication of users and applications, 170 sync agents, creating, 204–215
Configuration Manager, 128–129 sync groups, creating, 182–188
configuring in virtual machine, 128–130 sync rules, creating, 188–191
database, creating, 129–130 testing, 195–196
deploying reports to, 147–149 sys.database_connection_stats view, 80
formatting capabilities, 150 sys.dm_database_copies view, 114
free version, 126 sys.event_log view, 280
Report Manager, running reports from, 149–150 system stored procedures, 61
Report Manager virtual directory, 129–130
security in, 170
Visual Studio as authoring tool, 151 T
VM SSRS service URL, 166–167
table partitioning See partitioning data
VM to host, creating, 125–132
Table storage, 244–245
.sqlexpress instance name, 64
tables, 17–19, 30, 305–307
SSDT See SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
access control, 307–312
SSMS See SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
aggregating rows, 141
SSRS See SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
aliasing, 140–141
SSRS-in-a-VM solutions, 124
change tracking, 191
statements result set metadata, 278
check constraints on, 310
storage, 50–51, 244
clustered indexes, 61
See also Microsoft Azure Storage
columns, adding, 18, 300–301
stored procedures, 27–29, 60, 243–244, 307–312
data, inserting, 21–24, 67–68
mapping to entities, 319–320
deleting, 81–82
performance statistics, 278
foreign keys, 19, 22–23, 306
queries in, 141
ID primary key column, 18
system, 61
Is Identity? option, 18, 21
testing, 29–30
joining, 24–26, 140–141
strong password policy, 107
migrating data into and out of, 83–86

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 Visual Studio

tables (continued) Transient Fault Handling Application Block, 59, 235–243

NULL values, 22 Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), 61
partitioning, 251–259 triggers, 85, 278, 310
populating using T-SQL script, 67–68 tuning queries, 245
primary keys, 21–22 two-part names for database objects, 60
relationships between, defining, 19–20 two-way synchronization, 176–177
scripting, 68
service layer over, 307
updating, 304 U
validation rules, 307–312
unstructured data, 60, 244–245
table-valued parameters, batching, 244
UPDATE statement, 194–195
tabular data stream (TDS), 57
URLs
Task Parallel Library, 256, 259
managing, 15–16
TCP port 80, 130–132
mapping to controllers and actions, 321
TCP port 1433, 58
usage, monitoring, 263–280
tenants of cloud vendors, privacy from, 98
USE statement, 61, 135
text search engine library, 60
users
throttling, 235
authenticating and authorizing, 105–111
Traffic Manager, 179–180
Browser role, 170
transaction dynamic management views (DMVs), 280
Content Manager role, 170
transactional consistency, 59, 112, 120–121
creating, 108
Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
routing to closest data center, 179–180
change scripts, 301, 303
security credentials, 99
FROM clause, 24, 26
CREATE DATABASE statement, 43
data migration with, 64–70
database engine type property, 69 V
for database queries, 24 validation, data, 307–312
databases, creating, 180–181, 219–221, 292 varbinary(max) file storage, 54
DROP TABLE statement, 81 vendors, security responsibilities, 98–99
editing, 300–301 views, database, 27
EXEC statements, 29 views, dynamic management (DMVs), 275–280
executing, 43 views (in MVC applications), 321, 327–328
foreign-key table relationships, 65 virtual machines (VMs), 60–61, 126–132
generating automatically, 68–70 globally unique name, 147
IDENTITY_INSERT setting, 67 with IaaS, 3
left outer joins, 24, 26, 28 saving reports to, 148
local SQL Server database, creating, 65 shutting down, 128, 171
populating local databases, 67–68 SSRS service URL, 166–167
query filters, 25–26 virtual private networks (VPNs), 60–61
Remove-AzureSqlDatabase cmdlet, 50 virtualization layer, 2–3
reporting, preparing databases for, 133 Visual Studio
role assignment management, 107–108 Add Scaffold dialog, 325
server logins, creating, 107 ASP.NET Web Application project type, 222–223
sharded databases, 252 bi-directional editing, 300–301
SQL Database support, 57 Business Intelligence Developer Studio version, 151
SQL Database use of, 60 console applications, creating, 286–287
types of data property, 69 Data Tools Operations window, 303
user management, 107–108 database definitions, maintaining in, 295
WHERE clause, 25–26 databases, creating, 180–182
transient connection faults, 234–235, 237–243 Dataset designer, 313
transient error conditions, 239–243 EDM designer, 223, 313, 318

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Visual Studio

Visual Studio (continued)

Entity Data Model, creating, 315–321
W
importing databases into database projects, waits statistics, 276
297–300 Web API controllers, 223–230, 336–339
Mapping Details window, 320 Web API services, 336–341
NuGet package manager, 235–236 Web APIs
publishing databases, 301–303 connection strings, setting, 227
references, adding, 323 content negotiation, 230
scaffolding feature, 321, 325, 336–337 controllers, adding, 226–227, 230–233
Solution Explorer, viewing, 222 creating, 222–223, 225–228, 321–323
solutions, building, 226, 228 data access layer, referencing, 323–324
solutions, creating, 221–222, 294–295 deploying from Visual Studio, 334–335
source code control, 294–295 deploying to Microsoft Azure, 331–335
SQL Server Database projects, creating, 295–296 entity connection string, 324
SQL Server Object Explorer, 304 exception handling, 329–331
SSDT Business Intelligence add-in, 123 model class, adding, 225
SSDT Business Intelligence project templates, referencing data access layer project, 323
installing, 151, 154–156 referencing MVC and Web API assemblies, 322–323
stored procedures, creating, 310–312 RESTful Web APIs, building, 218–228
tables, creating, 30 sample database, creating, 219–221
target platform for database projects, setting, scaffolds, 226
296–297 services, defining in, 336
Views folder, 327 sharding with, 254–259
Web API projects, creating, 222–223 testing, 228–230, 233, 328–331
Web API projects, deploying, 334–335, 340–341 Transient Fault Handling Application Block, adding,
Windows Phone apps, creating, 343 235–236
Windows Phone apps, testing, 353–354 user interface, creating, 324–328
Windows Phone SDK, 341–342 Web (Basic) edition of SQL Database, 31, 55, 58
Visual Studio Report Server projects, 150–169 web services, creating, 336–341
See also reporting; reports Web.config file, copying into entity connection string,
AdventureWorks database, installing, 151–154 324
bar charts, adding to reports, 164–166 websites, 4, 321–335
creating reports, 156–162 whatismyipaddress.com, 37
data sources, creating, 158–159 Windows authentication, 58, 105
deploying, 150–169 Windows Azure, 2
designing, 150–169 Windows Firewall With Advanced Security, 130
formatting reports, 162–163 Windows Integrated authentication, 170
previewing reports, 163 Windows Live ID, 5
project properties, 166–167 Windows Phone 8 apps, 341–354
queries, defining, 159–160 Windows Phone Databound App template, 344
Report Manager home page, 168 Windows Phone SDK, installing, 341–342
Report Server Project Wizard, 158–162 Windows PowerShell See PowerShell
running reports from browser, 168–169
with SSDT Business Intelligence add-in, 125
SSDT Business Intelligence project templates, X
installing, 151, 154–156
X.509 v3 certificates, creating, 281
VM SSRS service URL, 166–167
XAML binding features, 345
XML, SQL Database support, 61
xml data type, 61

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