Azure – What is a Shared Access Signature?

Using a Shared Access Signature (SAS) is usually the best way to control access rights to Azure storage resources (like a container for backups) without exposing the primary / secondary storage keys. It is based on a URI and this is what I want to look at today.

I always use the Azure Storage Explorer to build a SAS token. Let’s dig into what the different parts mean.

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Azure Storage Explorer

I only ever use the storage explorer when managing my blobs, files, queues within storage accounts. It is your single view access point for all your storage needs and I totally recommend downloading it and using it (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/features/storage-explorer/).

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Sizing your Azure SQL Database

Do you want to identify the correct Service Tier and Compute Size ( was once known as performance level) for your Azure SQL Database? How would you go about it? Would you use the DTU (Database Transaction Unit) calculator? What about the new pricing model vCore? How would you translate you current on-premises workload to the cloud?

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Giant Azure SQL Databases

Okay it is not really called Giant Azure SQL Database but its close. There is a new public preview vCore service tier called Hyperscale. The architecture behind this is very different to that of a Standard tier SQL database (as an example).  What drives this concept? Flexible storage architecture where you can scale out the storage as your database grows (up to the 100TB mark).

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Azure SQL DB – Login failed for user NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON.

Now that I have your attention with a powerful title how about some context? It is quite common to get this error message when trying to connect to your Azure SQL Database which obviously resides on a “logical” SQL Server.

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