Marcin Policht

In one of our articles recently published on this forum, we have described the basic characteristics of Azure SQL Database elastic database jobs. As we pointed out, their name is somewhat misleading, since it implies that they are intended specifically for Elastic Database pools. However, their scope can include any custom-defined group of Azure SQL […]

One of more common concerns among database administrators who consider migrating their estate to Azure SQL Database is their ability to manage efficiently the migrated workloads. In particular, the absence of the SQL Server Agent introduces the challenge of identifying a means to perform ad-hoc and scheduled automated management tasks across multiple databases, such as […]

In our articles recently published on this forum, we have been covering high availability and disaster recovery features incorporated into Azure SQL Database. However, it is important to point out that Microsoft cloud platform also allows you to provide resiliency for your on-premises SQL Server deployments. In this article, we will present such functionality, available […]

Traditional deployments of Azure SQL Database involve identifying projected resource requirements (in terms of expected database size and performance load) and selecting the corresponding service tier and performance level. These, in turn, determine the sizing of resulting Azure SQL Database instances. While it is very straightforward to modify these parameters (and transition to a new […]

In one of the articles recently published on this forum, we have presented the point-in-time restore functionality incorporated into Azure SQL Database. Its primary benefit is the ability to recover from inadvertent database changes; however its applicability in the event of a disaster affecting an entire region is rather limited. In this article, we will […]

Azure SQL Database provides a number of benefits that leverage resiliency and redundancy built into the underlying cloud infrastructure. You can take advantage of these features in order to perform backup, restore, and failover tasks, which help you recover from human errors, service outages, or even regional disasters. In this article, we will provide an […]

In one of our recent articles published on this forum, we described the main characteristics of row-level security – a new feature introduced in Azure SQL Database V12 as well as in SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2. As we pointed out, this was another sign that the trend manifested by a lack of […]

One of the benefits of using Azure-based Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service offerings is considerably quicker access to newly developed capabilities, frequently becoming available long before they are incorporated into traditional, full-fledged products. In addition, the trend manifested by lack of feature parity between these two areas, with the cloud apps placing second behind their well-established on-premises […]

In a recent article published on this forum, we have described an automated method of backing up user databases hosted on SQL Server instances running in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Azure virtual machines. Now it is time to turn our attention to the equivalent approach to managing Windows updates in the same scenario. Just as before, the […]

Following the main theme of our earlier articles published on this forum, we will continue our quest for methods to simplify and streamline provisioning and management of Azure SQL Database and SQL Server running in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Azure virtual machines. For the time being, we will focus on the functionality related to common maintenance tasks, […]

In our recently published article, we presented a script that provisions a new Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) virtual machine running Windows Server 2012 R2 and prestages a SQL Server 2014 default instance. Effectively, once you capture the virtual disks containing the operating system and the database engine setup files (which can be easily accomplished either directly […]

In the recent articles published on this forum, we have been describing the process of preparing a Windows Server 2012 R2-based image containing a pre-staged installation of SQL Server 2014. The intention was to streamline deployment of SQL Server 2014 Azure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) virtual machines, without relying on somewhat inflexible Gallery images. So far we […]