The full message when connecting to your Azure SQL Database is:
Reason: An instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The public data endpoint on this server is not accessible. To connect to this server, use the Private Endpoint from inside your virtual network. (.Net SqlClient Data Provider)
I always wanted a way to schedule commands within Azure SQL Database. Personally, for me, the go to standard is the functionality of SQL Server Agent. Obviously, this is not possible out of the box but I have been using an on-premises SQL Server instance (within a specific vnet that is mapped to the logical Azure SQL server) with a linked server connection setup (with dedicated logins) to Azure SQL Database to run some code at a specific time to scale up (and down) my database dependent on peak hours.
Having worked with Azure SQL Database and its many flavours for couple of years now I am confident in building deploying, whether manual or templates. Being in Azure you can take the same mind set to build non-Microsoft database tech such as PostgreSQL, MySQL etc.
Let’s work though one, it’s that easy.
For some reason I have friends / colleagues telling me that when scaling (up and down for this example) that no downtime occurs. Well, not only does Microsoft documentation say differently, I will show it. So let’s test it out. Before the practical test, this is the official stance. “There is a switch over period where connectivity is lost to the database for a short amount of time, which can be mitigated using retry logic”.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could access one main dashboard / report that pulls in information from many tools such as security centre, SQL advisor and cost management tools? Well you can, thus giving you a focal point to implement best practices, called Azure Advisor. This is not specifically for Azure SQL Database, you can leverage this for most resources within Azure. Later in this blog post you see that I will use it as a focal point for my database infrastructure in Azure.
In the Azure portal under services look for “advisor”
After much reading through the internet looking for Amazon’s equivalent of Microsoft’s Azure functions (Lambda), I found this outstanding link that ” helps you understand how Microsoft Azure services compare to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Whether you are planning a multi-cloud solution with Azure and AWS, or migrating to Azure, you can compare the IT capabilities of Azure and AWS services in all categories”..
This is extremely handy and wanted to share it with you.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/aws-professional/services
This is by no means a complete list but more of a personal list of features I have seen not setup or just missed out when looking at Azure SQL DB. After reading, not only will I hope that you agree but it may provoke you to double check your setups.
Do you enable this setting to allow automatic tuning to care of all your performance needs? Well not ALL your needs, more so:
Yes you can still get execution plans for Azure SQL Database, you cannot get this from the Azure Portal so it is good to know for your tuning days. It is based on the same code you have probably run many times before. Lets get the plan handle and work through an example.
A way to enforce good practice and standards is by Azure Policy. As stated by Microsoft “Azure Policy is a service in Azure that you use to create, assign, and manage policies. These policies enforce different rules and effects over your resources, so those resources stay compliant with your corporate standards and service level agreements”. Pretty important stuff if you ask me.
