I inherited an Azure Dedicated SQL Pool at my current firm. The DWU was set at 100, is there a way to increase the DWU's? It would be appear I would have to create a new Dedicated SQL Pool to increaase the DWU's
Also, is there a guide showing what DWU's are best for a particular environments? For example, Microsoft recommend a minimum of 1100 DWUs for production, but I'm not sure what production environment that is based on?
In Azure portal, Click the dedicated SQL resource where you need to increase DWUs.
Then click Scale
Then, Increase the DWU based on the requirement.
You can also use t-sql command, powershell to change DWUs.
Reference: Microsoft document on Changing DWUs
Related
Brand new to Azure, so please bear with me if this is obvious.
I've set up an SQL database for testing purposes. As the service is charged per hour, and it's currently only going to be used by me during my working hours, I would like to know if it's possible to have it running only during those hours.
I realise that the cost difference this will make isn't large, but I might as well not spend the money when I know it's not needed, and I'll want to know how it's done for when we start adding more services.
As of now, the simple and direct answer is No. Azure don't allow to start/stop/pause Azure SQL Database. It starts billing once you create it. As a workaround, you can export the database and then delete it and it will stop billing.
But, as #DavidBrown mentioned in the comment, the serverless compute tier is a option which you can go with.
The serverless compute tier for single databases in Azure SQL Database
is parameterized by a compute autoscaling range and an auto-pause
delay. The configuration of these parameters shapes the database
performance experience and compute cost.
But even in serverless compute tier, you need to pay for storage even when the database is paused.
Add on, Serverless compute tier allows you to have auto-pausing and auto-resuming based on certain conditions.
Please go through Auto-pausing and auto-resuming to get some insights on the same.
On a normal SQL server we can tell it how to grow. The default is 10% each time, so the database grows by 10% its current size. Do we have any insight on how the Azure SQL database is growing other than it grows automatically?
Azure SQL server would allow us to configure the database to grow in fixed chunks e.g. 20 MB?
thanks,
sakaldeep
You can use PowerShell, T-SQL, CLI. the portal to increase or decrease the maximum size of a database but Azure SQL Database does not support setting autogrow. You can vote for this feature to be available in the future on this URL.
If you run the following query on the database, you will see the growth is set to 2048 KB.
SELECT name, growth
FROM sys.database_files;
I've been getting some warnings about high utilization on our SQL Azure database server. What is the best way to monitor the utilization of that machine and try to analyze what is causing the high utilization spikes?
Log into the Azure management portal http://manage.windowsazure.com
Select your SQL Database that you interested in getting details on.
Select monitor
Let’s say you want to monitor your DTU %. Click on that line item.
Select ADD RULE
Name the rule and describe it
Specify who you want to receive the alerts.
This flow with screen shots can be found here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mschray/archive/2015/09/04/monitoring-your-sql-database-in-azure.aspx
sys.resouce_stats and sys.resource_usage can be used for monitoring the resource usage. Query store feature in SQL DB v12 helps you debugging the performance issues:
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/query-store-a-flight-data-recorder-for-your-database/
Using Dynamic Management Views
Azure SQL Database enables a subset of dynamic management views to diagnose performance problems
take look here DMV sql azure
I have one SQL Agent maintenance job which checks the index fragmentation within a database and rebuilds indexes if required.
This is running well in my test server (Microsoft Sql Server 2012). But my production server is in Azure. Now I want to schedule that job to Azure.
SQL Agent does not exist in Azure SQL Database so how can I schedule a SQL job in Azure DB?
Since this question was first asked, there is now another alternative to handle this problem:
Azure Functions
Here are a couple of examples that could easily be modified to call a stored procedure that rebuilds your indexes
Create a function in Azure that is triggered by a timer
Use Azure Functions to connect to an Azure SQL Database
Also see
How to maintain Azure SQL Indexes and Statistics - this page has an example stored procedure for rebuilding your indexes that you can download.
Reorganize and Rebuild Indexes
A few things to keep in mind with Azure functions
They are built on top of Azure Web Jobs SDK and offer additional functionality
There are two different pricing models:
App Service plan (attach it to an existing plan)
Predictable cost model
It puts extra load on the same VM used by your web site
Consumption plan
You get some free processing every month
The default maximum run time is 5 minutes to prevent billing problems, but it can be changed via the host.json file.
Edit September 5, 2021 to add additional information
It should be noted that if you need SQL Agent, you have another option now. I would suggest reading up on Azure SQL Managed Instances. You can see a comparison of Azure SQL to Azure SQL Managed instance here in the Microsoft Documentation. With Azure SQL Managed Instances, your transition to the cloud could be a lot simpler since a lot of the on-premise features you are used to are already there (including SQL Server Agent, DB Mail, etc.).
This feature has been rejected by Microsoft (link no longer available).
To quote their response:
Today in Azure there are several alternatives,
SQL Database Elastic Jobs
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/elastic-jobs-overview
The Azure job scheduler
http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/services/scheduler/
The new
preview of Azure Automation
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/automation/.
SQL Server
in a VM
Option 1 requires an additional dedicated cloud service, which increases cost. Option 2 is free (I think) as long as you don't run more than once per hour.
Azure SQL does not support sql jobs. From documentation:
Microsoft Azure SQL Database does not support SQL Server Agent or
jobs. You can, however, run SQL Server Agent on your on-premise SQL
Server and connect to Microsoft Azure SQL Database.
WebJobs: If you have a website you can create webjob and run it on schedule. See more here
Other alternatives - Scheduling job on SQL Azure
Another option is rovergo, a service that allows you to schedule sql jobs with a cron expression. This is nice because you don't have to create a web job or azure function. You can simply schedule a sql script.
(I'm a developer on rovergo)
You can use Azure automation to schedule jobs on an Azure-DB like the on premise SQL Agent.
See https://azure.microsoft.com/nl-nl/blog/azure-automation-your-sql-agent-in-the-cloud/ for more information.
Available for a couple of years now, Elastic Jobs for azure db...
docs:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/job-automation-overview?view=azuresql
tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIMgqkXZFOQ
Currently seems to use the 2017 version of the sqlagent sp (or a close approximation), but elastic links are now already pointing to SQL2022 preview which contains a newer version of the agent sps
I am working on a project which uses a relational database (SQL Server 2008). The local (on-premises) application both reads and writes to the database. I am working on a different front end for Azure (MVC2 Web Role), which will use the same data, but in a read only fashion. If I was deploying a traditional web app, I would use SQL Express to act as the local database, and deploy changes with updates to the application (the data changes very slowly) or via some sync system.
With Azure, the picture is a little cloudy (sorry, I had to). I can't seem to find any information to indicate if SQL Express will work inside of Web Roles, and if so, how to do it. Does anyone know if using SQL Express in an Azure web role is possible?
Other options I could do if forced: SQL CE or use SQL Azure. Both have a number of downsides, and are definitely less than perfect.
Thanks,
Erick
Edit
I think my scenario may not have been clear enough.
This data won't change between deployments, and is only accessed from within the Web Role; it is basically a static cache. The on-premises part is kind of a red herring, as it doesn't impact the data on the web role (aside from being its source). Basically, what I want to do is have a local data store/cache that I use existing T-SQL/DAL code with.
While I could use SQL Azure, it doesn't add anything, and if anything only adds additional overhead and failure points. I could also use a VM Role, but that is way too costly/complex.
In a perfect world, I would package the MDF into the cspkg (so it gets deployed with the app) and then use it locally from within the role. If there is no way to do this, then that is ok and I need to figure out the pros and cons of other solutions. We don't live in a perfect world. :)
You might be able to run SQL Express using a custom VHD but you won't be able to rely on any data every being present on that VHD. The VMs are completely reset when they reboot - there is no physical persistence across reboots.
If you wanted to, you might be able to locate your entire SQL Server installation in Azure blob storage.
However, in doing all of this, you'll only be able to have one worker/web role that can use that database. Remember: a SQL Server database can only be attached to one SQL Server at a time. If you want to scale out, you'll have to create new SQL Server instances for every web/worker role.
Outside of cost concerns, I can't think of anything that is in SQL Express that should be a show stopper for 99.9% of applications out there.
Adding to Jeremiah's answer: SQL Azure should give you nearly everything SQL Express does today, and you can use the Sync service to synchronize on-premise SQL Server with SQL Azure.
If you installed SQL Express into a VM role, you'd be consuming around $90 monthly just for that instance, plus blob storage (you'd want a Cloud Drive for durability). By definition, a VM Role (or any role) must support scale-out; if you were to scale to 2 instances for whatever reason, both instances would need their own copy of the database, so you'd need to create a blob snapshot for each instance.
Keep in mind, though, if you choose to install SQL Express in a VM: once you're at 2 instances, along with, say, 20GB per instance of blob storage, you're nearing $200 monthly and you're maintaining your VM's OS patches, SQL Express configuration and updates, failure recovery procedures, etc. In contrast, SQL Azure at 20GB, while costing the same $200, will offer better performance and works with the sync service, while completely removing any OS or database server management tasks from you.
To add to the already existing answers and for anyone wondering if its a good idea to run SQL Express in the cloud:
it does makes sense as a temporary storage area. Consider this architectural approach:
say you're spinning up nodes to run jobs. Storing a gazillion of calculation results might be a good idea inside a local SQL Express for each node, and provide the aggregated responses immediately when the job finishes on the node. Transfer of the no longer hot results to off-prem SQL server for future reporting/etc can be done afterwords. SQL Azure may not be optimal from the volume/latency/cost perspective to store gazillion of results and ATS will not always fit the bill, especially when relational data, performance or existing code are involved.
To expand on what David mentioned you can register for SQL Azure Data Sync CTP2 that would allow sync from SQL Server to SQL Azure here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/SQLAzure/datasync.aspx
Make sure to use CTP2 though since CTP1 did not support SQL Server.
If it's a read only local cache - SQL CE 4 or SQLite.
Both have Entity Framework providers.
If you're writing to it - SQL Azure