Is there anywhere I can host my WCF service and SQL Server database for free?
Microsoft is offering introductory, limited accounts for Windows Azure and SQL Azure - to a certain point in terms of size of your database and traffic you generate, it's free.
Windows Azure / SQL Azure info
Windows Azure / SQL Azure pricing info
Windows Azure Special Introductory Offer
Included each month at no charge:
* Windows Azure
o 25 hours of a small compute instance
o 500 MB of storage
o 10,000 storage transactions
* SQL Azure
o 1GB Web Edition database (available for first 3 months only)
* AppFabric
o 100,000 Access Control transactions
o 2 Service Bus connections
* Data Transfers (per region)
o 500 MB in
o 500 MB out
Any monthly usage in excess of the
above amounts will be charged at the
standard rates. This introductory
special will end on July 31, 2010 and
all usage will then be charged at the
standard rates.
Completely free SQL Server hosting is very hard to come by - you might find certain hosters that will use SQL Server Express (limited to 4 GB in size, 10 GB as of SQL Server 2008 R2 Express) which doesn't incur licensing costs.
But ultimately: there ain't no such thing as a free lunch! You want services -> you gotta pay (or run the machine yourself)
Related
I have set up a SQL Server 2017 Standard Edition instance and I am experimenting with data compression. One thing I noticed is that the SQL Server uses only one core for compression, which on a large table (>300GB) takes a very long time to complete. Incidentally, a SQL 2014 Dev Edition uses all available cores for the same operation and takes a fraction of the time.
Is this expected behavior?
If yes, is it limited to when the table is compressed the first time i.e. via ALTER TABLE?
Will SQL Server SE only ever use 1 core when inserting and/or extracting data from a compressed table?
(IMHO) This is expected behavior and limitation of Standard Edition.
While some of the Enterprise features been unlocked in SQL Server 2016 SP1, Microsoft intentionally keeps plenty optimizations like multi-core maintenance tasks only in Enterprise edition. Because it simply costs 4x more than Standard.
So companies that really need such grade of functionality have to buy premium offering.
According to this document:
Enterprise edition:
The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers
comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast
performance, unlimited virtualization, and end-to-end business
intelligence - enabling high service levels for mission-critical
workloads and end-user access to data insights.
Standard edition:
SQL Server Standard edition delivers basic data management and
business intelligence database for departments and small organizations
to run their applications and supports common development tools for
on-premise and cloud - enabling effective database management with
minimal IT resources.
Similar limitations of Standard Edition:
single core index rebuilt
max 25% of RAM can be used by columnstore
etc etc
I am trying to migrate my ASP (IIS) +SQLServer application from SQL Server Express Edition to Azure SQL database. Currently, we only have one dedicated server with both IIS and SQL express edition on it. The planned setup will be ASP (IIS) on an Azure virtual machine and Azure SQL database.
Per my search on google, it seems SQL server Express Edition has performance issues which are resolved in standard and enterprise edition. The DTU calculator indicates that I should move to 200 DTUs. However, that is based on test run on SQL Express edition setup with IIS on the same dedicated server.
Some more information:
The database size is around 5 GB currently including backup files.
Total users are around 500.
Concurrent usage is limited, say around 30-40 users at a time.
Bulk usage happens for report retrieval during a certain time frame only by a limited number of users.
I am skeptical to move to 300DTUs given the low number of total users. I am initially assuming 100 DTUs is good enough but looking for some advice on someone who has dealt with this before.
Database size and number of users isn't a solid way to estimate DTU usage. A poorly indexed database with a handful of users can consume ridiculous amounts of DTUs. A well-tuned database with lively traffic can consume a comparatively small number of DTUs. At one of my clients, we have a database that handles several million CRUD ops per day over 3,000+ users that rarely breaks 40DTUs.
That being said, don't agonize over your DTU settings. It is REALLY easy to monitor and change. You can scale up or scale down without interrupting service. I'd make a best guess, over-allocate slightly, then move your allocated DTUs up or down based on what you see.
it seems SQL server Express Edition has performance issues
This is not correct.There are certain limitations like 10GB size,one core CPU and some features are disabled ..
I am initially assuming 100 DTUs is good enough but looking for some advice on someone who has dealt with this before.
I would go with the advice of DTU calculator,but if you want to go with 100 DTU's,i recommend going with it ,but consistently evaluate performance..
Below query can provide you DTU metrics in your instance and if any one of the metrics is consistently over 90% over a period of time,i would try to tune that metric and finally upgrade to new tier,if i am not successfull
DTU query
SELECT start_time, end_time,
(SELECT Max(v)
FROM (VALUES (avg_cpu_percent), (avg_physical_data_read_percent), (avg_log_write_percent)) AS value(v)) AS [avg_DTU_percent]
FROM sys.resource_stats
WHERE database_name = '<your db name>'
ORDER BY end_time DESC;
-- Run the following select on the Azure Database you are using
SELECT
max (avg_cpu_percent),max(avg_data_io_percent),
max (avg_log_write_percent)
FROM sys.resource_stats
WHERE database_name = 'Database_Name'
What is the maximum number of databases that we can create in a single Azure logical server?
There is soft limit of 150 databases per server.
However customers can get that limit removed by calling the Azure Help Desk and going through a credit check process.
Contact azure support for precise response here
For Azure SQL Database pricing, the pricing is mentioned as $x/hour
Question: Let's say that 'x' is $2/hour. If I create 10 different user databases for my application, will I pay 10 times the hourly cost i.e. $20/hour or will I pay just $2/hour since the cost is for a database server?
I am not sure if I will be charged for each user-created database i.e. each of these 10 databases or just for one database server.
You will be charged for each user-created database i.e. each of these 10 databases depending of their pricing tier.
http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/sql-database/
A new service plan was announced 04/2015, called SQL Azure Elastic database pool. As of today, it is still in preview mode, but pricing is available here -- make sure you click on Elastic Database button to see the prices.
With Elastic database pool the pricing model is as follows. First, you pay per pool, based on number of performance units you reserve for the pool (DTUs). Then you pay additionally for each database, which is part of the pool. The per-database price is quite small (currently around $1.26/mo), so most of your expenses will be a payments for DTUs, that are shared across all databases of your pool.
UPDATE:
As of May 2016, Azure SQL Database elastic pool is generally available. The pricing details are also updated. As of today, you can get up to 200 databases in Basic Tier for $149/month, which boils down to $0.745 per month per database.
The pricing for Azure SQL Database is per database. This means you would be paying for each of the 10 databases. You can learn more about Azure SQL Database pricing here.
We all know that the data transfer from Azure to SQL Azure is free, but data access from non Azure Data-Center is charged(per Gigabytes).
Is the Data transfer from Inter Azure Data Centers also free...?
i.e. : Azure from EUROPE Data-Center and SQL Azure from Asia Data-Center : Is this also free?
References :
SQL Azure Pricing Explained
I think they are not free.
Following the Microsoft explanation:
Data transfers measured in GB (transmissions to and from the Windows Azure datacenter): Data transfers are charged based on the total amount of data going in and out of the Azure services via the internet in a given billing period. Data transfers within a sub region are free.
It is not free.
Our company has servers and databases in both US North and US South datacenters and we are charged for any SQL Azure bandwidth sent between the two.