1. On-premise database. Files in the cloud.
Dinesh Priyankara |
Senior Architect – Specialist, Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd

2. Dinesh Priyankara | ‏@dinesh_priya
Senior Architect – Specialist, Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Since 2006, Data Platform (SQL Server)
Consultant, Trainer, Speaker
MSc in IT, MCSE, MCDBA

3. 01 | SQL Server Data Files in Microsoft Azure
Dinesh Priyankara | Senior Architect – Specialist, Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.

4. SQL Server Data Files in Microsoft Azure
This makes possible of running a on-premises SQL Server database while data files are stored in Microsoft Azure Storage as Azure Blobs.

5. What key Benefits it offers?
Fast migration - Data and log files, or database can be moved easily from one location to another location, it is still transparent to the application.
Centralized data – Any instance can connect with it, from any place.
Cost – you save a lot, no need to worry about enhancing infrastructure.
Limitless storage – you do not need to worry on space availability. It is in cloud.
Security – data in Azure can be encrypted. You maintain keys on-prem.
Snapshot backups – Instantaneous backup and quicker restoration
High availability and Disaster recovery – you do not lose your data even at a on-prem disaster.

6. What is the cost?
Need to pay costs associated with storage and transactions.
Renewal of Blob lease every 45 to 60 seconds implicitly.
Use pricing calculator;
us/pricing/calculator/

7. What I need and What should I do?
Windows Azure Storage
You need a Azure storage account and a container.
You need to create a policy on a container.
You need to create a Shared Access Signature (SAS)key.
SQL Server
You need SQL Server 2014 or 2016.
You need to create a Credential for each container

8. What about security? Any recommendations?
Make sure that container and blob data can be access only by Windows Azure account owner by setting access to private on the container.
Make sure SQL Server accesses the storage using SAS, not using Azure storage account key.
Implement Transparent Database Encryption (TDE) for better protection.

9. Lets try and see…….. Here are steps - I
Create a Windows Azure Storage Account. This needs a classic storage account.
Create a Policy on the container and A SAS key.
For that, install Azure Resource Manager and Azure Service Management modules.
Use PowerShell ISE for installing these;

10. Lets try and see…….. Here are steps - II
Login to your account and get the subscription

11. Lets try and see…….. Here are steps - III
Write a script for creating policy and SAS key, and execute.
Code is available at: m/en- us/library/dn aspx

12. Lets try and see…….. Here are steps - IV
Get the code generated for the SQL Server Credential from the code or take the SAS key for generating it.

13. Lets try and see…….. Here are steps - V
Create a credential for the storage
A SQL Server credential is an object that is used to store authentication information required to connect to a resource outside of SQL Server. The credential stores the URI path of the storage container and the shared access signature for this container.

14. Creating a database

15. Backup and Restore
You can backup on-premises database to Azure Storage using BACKUP TO URL
You can create/restore a database using a backup in Azure storage.
You can take instantaneous backup using Azure snapshots.
You can restore the database to a point-in-time just using two log file snapshot backups.

16. Taking Backup to URL
Taking Snapshot Backup

17. Are there any limitations?
Only one SQL Server instance can connect with data files at a time.
Only .mdf, .ldf, and .ndf are allowed in Azure storage.
Geo-replication for the storage is not supported.
Maximum size of a data file is 1TB.
FileStream and In-Memory OLTP do not support.

18. Can you use this for all my databases?
You should consider if;
Not much queries against data
Need High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Need more storage
Bandwidth is acceptable
It is a Virtual Machine in Azure (more suitable)
You should not consider if;
It is a transaction-heavy and data is heavily queried.

19. 07 | Q & A
Dinesh Priyankara | Senior Architect – Specialist, Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.

20. References Tutorial SQL Server Data Files in Microsoft Azure
SQL Server Data Files in Microsoft Azure
SQL Server On-Premise Database files maintained in Azure – dinesql
azure.html

21. Thank You
Dinesh Priyankara | Senior Architect – Specialist, Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd.