I want to start using SQL Azure and SQL Azure Data Sync (for both on-premises SQL 2008 and Azure).
The Azure Portal still labels data sync 'Preview' - so is it even production ready?
If not when will it be?
Anything labeled as "In-Preview" is considered not supported for production use, though you may opt to do so; just realize that it is currently not recommended. As for timing, I suggest keeping tabs on the SQL team's blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/
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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.
The use case is Distributed deployment of Web Application on Azure using PaaS. I read the Azure documentation on SQL Azure database geo-replication, and it seems none of the services tiers best fit this need. The other option is SQL Sync, which is in preview and cannot be used in production.It seems Microsoft Azure does not have any way for a redundant database centric application using PaaS model.
Please help how to resolve the issue or any alternate solution.
Akanksha
Both SQL Data Sync and Geo-replication are for database redundant using. But we need to know you detailed scenarios, so that we can say which one is more fit. Basically Geo-replication is DB level data synchronization used for DR. SQL Data Sync is Table level data synchronization used for reference data replication for both Azure DB and On-prem DB.
Right now, our application only has one Web Site instance along with SQL Database deployed at Azure US datacenter. We are looking for deploying more Web Site instance at other datacenter such as APAC and Europe. There still be a local SQL Database for each of those web site instance. We would like end user could fail over to another instance if his registered instance is not available, such as if US web site instance is down, we could fail over user to Europe instance. With this, we would need to synchronize local SQL Database at all data centers, US, Europe and APAC.
So we are looking for what's best approach to implement the database synchronization here for Azure SQL Database. Here are what we found at this point:
Azure Data Sync, it looks like that it is the perfect choice since it is available right away at Azure Management Portal and it would be up and running with some simple configuration. However there seems couple catches. The feature has been on preview about 2 years now (see this link with the following quote from comment):
SQL Data Sync has been in preview for over 2 years and the last update was December 2012. Has this been abandoned? Is this a technology we should encourage our clients to use? There absolutely needs to be an ability to synchronize data between a local SQL DB and Azure but Microsoft seems to have dropped this and I'm leery of putting a client on this only to find that the plug has been pulled. You owe it to your users to give us some information
I also saw the post Azure data sync not syncing all databases at SO, it seems that this feature is a second class feature at Azure and MS doesn't really pay sufficient attention to it. So I am worried how good it is.
Microsoft Sync Framework, it seems a more generic sync framework and more suitable for client and server sync instead of sync among server database. Plus it is not simple as above SQL Data Sync which is available just by configuration at Azure.
Any other suggestions on sql database sync at Azure? It would be really appreciated if you could share your experience here.
Thanks very much in advance for your insight.
Update:
Azure Data Sync is built upon using Microsoft Sync Framework: see link, the quote:
Microsoft SQL Data Sync is a cloud-based data synchronization service built on the Microsoft Sync Framework technologies.
Since no one is answering this question and I am going to do it myself. Based on some latest information, the Azure Data Sync is buggy and can not be used for production at this point. I guess that's the reason why it never moves out of preview even after around 2 years. There is no other good approach for handling Azure SQL Database sync at this point unless you want to build something yourself.
you can use RedGate Data Compare to sync your Azuresql DB with your Local DB
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
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