Our current web application uses Azure SQL Database. We need to create a scheduled process for importing/exporting data from a SQL database in Azure Virtual Machine to Azure SQl database. And also provide ability to trigger manually.
Currently we have manual scripts with Linked server which needs to be run on both servers.
What are the best options available for clean import/Export data automation (scheduled or manual)? for e.g. Secure Connection between servers, Tools or Applications (other than SSIS)
Could someone please provide guidance.
Thank you,
Vamshi
You can use SQL Data Sync tool to sync data between an Azure SQL Server VM and an Azure SQL database. The sync can be done manually or scheduled with a frequency of days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Of course, you can also use SSIS for that purpose. But you may see intermittent connection failures that can substantially impact data loads.
You can use Azure Data Factory to connect to Azure SQL VM and Azure SQL Database and using the copy data tool export/import data from one to the other, and vice versa.
Related
I need a help to sync the data on Azure SQL from SQL server(On-premise).
Available recourses:
2 Database (SQL Server) on premise available on different server
Azure SQL database on cloud
Migration script/queries are ready to fetch data from on-premise sql server
Requirements:
Set up a scheduler which will run every 12 hours means two times in a day on Azure SQL.
In scheduler, using migration scripts data will be fetch from the On-premise SQL server and insert into Azure SQL Database.
One of the most prevalent Azure SQL DB migration/replication features is Azure Data Sync.
There are two sorts of schedules: Automatic and Manual. Automatic schedules function on time intervals, with the lowest number being 5 minutes. The second kind is the manual schedule, which allows the user to conduct the sync anytime they want using the Azure Portal or PowerShell. The goal of this PowerShell workflow script is to do a one-time sync manually, then switch to automatic sync and configure Sync time intervals according to your preferences.
you can refer this links to setup data sync Set up Data Sync in the Azure portal, Set up Data Sync with PowerShell
Reference: Schedule Data Sync with Azure SQL Database use an Automation account
Due to reasons (I've been told it's a networking issue with MIs; regardless, we can't fix it, we're waiting on a solution from MS that may or may not come out this year), we cannot talk from on-prem to managed instances. However, we can reach Azure SQL Databases.
We would like to replicate lookup data from on-prem to Azure Managed Instances (MIs) as well as ASDs. Is there any way to use the ASD as a "jump" box for replication, maybe by putting the Distributor on an MI that can talk to the ASD?
Looked at Azure Data Sync, but the 5-minute-minimum makes it a no-go.
Otherwise, our current fallback is to run an Azure VM/AKS instance, replicate to it, then from there to the ASDs/MIs. But man, I'd rather not have to do that.
Any suggestions appreciated.
One Way Transactional replication using SQL Data Sync for Azure.
If they wish to maintain the replication running after the migration to Managed Instances, transactional replication will be the best option at this time. Replication to Azure SQL Database
Or using ETL via Azure DataFactory
Transfer data from a SQL Server database to an Azure SQL Database using Azure Blob Storage and the Azure Data Factory (ADF): this is a supported legacy technique that benefits from a replicated staging copy.
ADF pipeline consisting of two data migration processes. They work together to transfer data between a SQL Server database and an Azure SQL Database on a regular basis. The two actions are as follows:
Data should be copied from a SQL Server database to an Azure Blob Storage account
We're in the process of a server migration from an on-prem server (Win2008R2) to Azure PaaS.
To move the DBs, we used the Microsoft Data Migration Assistant (DMA) tool, which worked great and we can connect to the migrated Azure DB via SQL Server Management Studio.
Considering:
Made quite a few changes to the migrated Azure DB (tables, stored procedures, indexes) to work with the apps in Azure
Combined multiple on-prem DBs into one DB in Azure via DMA to save costs
On-prem DB is continually being modified by insert/update operations (multiple tables) during the migration process
Question: what is the best and fastest way to migrate data (all vs missing/updated) considering the above?
I would recommend you to migrate first only the schema of your on-premises databases to Azure SQL Databases and then let Azure SQL Data Sync to migrate the data to Azure and keep it updated on Azure SQL Database.
My suggestion to start with an empty schema on the Azure SQL Database side is because when SQL data Sync finds data on-premises and on Azure it start comparing both databases and that consumes a lot of resources.
On the initial sync SQL Data Sync may consume a lot of resources on the on-premises database server even when having an empty schema on the Azure side, for that you can use SQL Server Resource Governor to cap the CPU used by the data sync sessions in your on premises SQL Server, and this way avoid big performance impact possibly affecting database users.
When you are ready, you can switch your users (gradually or not if SQL Data Sync is on bi-directional mode) to Azure. Once your users have been migrated, you can then remove the member database (the on-premises database) from the SQL Data Sync configuration and stop SQL Data Sync operation.
I disagree with all the answers here.
If you are running on Win2008R2 there is a high chance that you are on an old SQL Server (2008? 2012?) which are both deprecated and unsuitable for Azure SQL Database. And probably the application is also old and not suitable for the Cloud in general. I suggest you a good testing phase.
Here my to do list:
Upgrade SQL Server to SQL Server 2016 on-prem and test if all your queries are still running correctly
Test how ready is your SQL Server to go to Azure SQL Database through Microsoft Data Migration Assistant (DMA) tool or the new Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio (came out his month).
Don even think for a second that merging databases will reduce your overall costs. Decide if going multi-tenant or single-tanant not because of the price of the database.
Plan for hours of downtime based on the size of the migration. Don't migrate while your database is modified. Expect downtime. The best way is to take a backup of the day before and then resume the logs.
and test like crazy. This is not gonna be easy because the app is old.
Good luck.
Visual Studio also has a great tool for comparing both schema and data between two databases on different servers.
It can then update the target database with any changes after which you can switch over to use the Azure DB.
This method would require downtime of around 5-30 minutes depending on amount of data, but that might be acceptible depending on your requirements.
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 have a scenario as explained below and I need to implement the best Data Sync method.
I have a centralized SQL Azure database (master Database)
There are about 20 (this will increase in future) on-premises SQL Server Databases. These database are not necessarily always connected to the internet.
All master and on-premises DB's will have the same schema/table structures.
I would like to do bidirectional data sync between all on-premises databases with SQL Azure and vice-versa.
Data Sync frequency will be once in a day.
Each on-premises DB size is reasonable(not too big and not too small).
These below options I have explored:
SQL Azure Data Sync
Microsoft Sync Framework
SQL Server 2008 Change Data Capture
SQL Server Change Tracking
I would like to know the best possible method to achieve this.
I have been working with SQl azure data sync, Microsift sync framework and Sql server change tracking. I have no idea about change data capture.
Sql azure data sync.
This is the easiest way to implement data sync. It is a matter of configuration. But unfortunately still in preview and Microsoft no recommended for production yet. We have been using to sync 20 databases spread around different geographical location and so far works good. No coding required. But you may have to pay in future when you are using this service. At the moment it is free.
Microsoft Sync Framework
Microsoft sync framework is for developers. Developers can use Sync framework as an API and develop sync application. Sql azure data sync use sync framework internally. To implement data sync with azure you need to implement N-Tier architecture with WCF. And you need to host your WCF service in azure web site or virtual machine. Considerable development time required and see the following link for sample implementation from Microsoft. Once you develop you can easily configure and use for sync multiple databases.
Database Sync:SQL Server and SQL Express N-Tier with WCF
SQL Server Change Tracking
You need to manually programme the each table for data syn and you need to have link server setup between each sql server. To setup link server with azure database you need to open some specific port.
items #3 and #4 in your list are not really synchronization solutions, just part of it. Both SQL CDC and SQL CT simply allows you to track the changes. you have to put in extra code to grab those changes and apply/sync to another database.
SQL Data Sync service will be your best option if you don't want to write code. Note that up until today (despite the fact its in preview for so long), Data Sync is still in Preview Mode.
If you're find writing code, Sync Fx is a good option as well (SQL Data Sync internally uses Sync Framework).
Azure SQL Data Sync has now reached general availability (GA) as shown on the following Microsoft Article.
Announcing the general availability of Azure SQL Data Sync