This is the slide deck from my SQL In The City presentation in LA on October

1. Top 5 Things Developers Should Know @
SQL Azure
By Ike Ellis
http://www.ellisteam.net
@ike_ellis
ike@ellisteam.net
P: 619.922.9801

13. Before the Dragons
Quick Demo: How to Sign Up
• Free Accounts
– BizSpark
– MSDN Subscription
– 30 day trial
• Bing SQL Azure 30 day trial….there are coupons and
instructions.
• Look on the SQL Azure Team Blog
– Remember: Microsoft wants you to use this,
there’s a way to try it for free…

14. Architecture

15. Before the Dragons: Architecture -
Logical/Physical Databases/Servers

16. Dragon #1: The ConnectionString

17. Your SQL Server
Your
App
Change Connection String
SQL Azure

18. 5 Things Make Up a Connection String
• What are they?

19. 5 Things Make Up a Connection String
• What are they?
– UserName
– Password
– Database(Catalog)
– ServerName
– ProviderName

20. #1 ConnectionString
<add name="FlashcardEntities"
connectionString="metadata=res://*/Models.FlashcardData.csdl|res://*/Models.FlashcardData.ss
dl|res://*/Models.FlashcardData.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection
string=&quot
;Data Source=etnejn2aev.database.windows.net;Initial Catalog=flashcards;Integrated
Security=False;
User ID=***(username@servername);Password=*******;
MultipleActiveResultSets=True
;Encrypt=True(negotiated)
;TrustServerCertificate=False&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

21. Connection Providers
• Use ADO.NET, ODBC, PHP (NOT OLE DB)
– Client libraries pre-installed in Azure roles
– Support for ASP.NET controls
• Clients connect directly to a database
– Cannot hop across DBs (no USE)
– May need to include <login>@<server>
– Use familiar tools (sqlcmd, osql, SSMS, etc)
– Use connection pooling for efficiency
• SSMS 2008 R2 can connect
– http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/archive/2009/11/11/9921041.aspx
• SSRS, SSIS, SSAS can all connect to SQL Azure using the right
provider.

22. Typical ADO.NET Connection.Open()
try {
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(sqlConnectionString))
{
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sqlStatement, conn))
{
conn.Open();
using (SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
while (dr.Read())
{
}
}
}
}
}
catch (SqlException ex)
{
SxpLog.WriteSqlException(ex, "some", "other", "data");
}

23. New Connection.Open())
string sqlContext = string.empty;
try {
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(sqlConnectionString))
{
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sqlStatement, conn))
{
sqlContext = GetSqlContextInfo(conn);
using (SqlDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
while (dr.Read())
{
}
}
}
}
}
catch (SqlException ex)
{
SxpLog.WriteSqlException(ex, sqlContext, "some", "other", "data");
}

24. GetSqlContextInfo
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bartr/archive/2010/06/18/sql-azure-connection-
retry.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+Microsoft/MSDN-
Blogs+(MSDN+Blogs)

25. Dragon #2: Throttling, Disaster Recovery, &
Some New Errors

26. Throttling

27. Throttling
• Throttling Service
– Protects a machine from sustained high usage of
system resources
– Evaluate actual resource usage vs. safe thresholds
real-time
– Throttle the busiest days first
• Throttling shows as connection error 40501
– The service is currently busy. Retry the request after
10 seconds…
• Needs Decoding

28. Throttling Scenario #1
• Customer A uses 30% of the CPU on the server
• Customer B comes in and starts using 70% of the
CPU on the server
• Customer B triggers the throttling event
• Customer B gets throttled

29. Throttling Scenario #2
• Customer B uses 70% of the CPU on the server
• Customer A comes in and uses 30% of the CPU on
the server
• Customer A triggers the throttling event
• Customer B gets throttled

31. Throttling Class – Trace Young
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/ar
ticles/sql-azure-performance-and-elasticity-
guide.aspx#Code_Sample_Decoding_SQL_Azure_Rea
son_Codes

32. Another Reason We Need Retry Code =
Disaster Recovery/Database Replicas

33. Dragon #2: Some New Errors
1. 40550 - Session has been terminated because it has acquired too many locks. Try reading or
modifying fewer rows in a single transaction. (Greater than 1,000,000 locks)
2. 40551 - Session has been terminated because of excessive TempDB Usage(TempDB is only
allowed to be 5GB in size)
3. 40552 - Session used too much of the transaction log. try modifying fewer rows in a single
transaction. (Transaction consuming excessive log resources are terminated. The max
permitted log size for a single transaction is 1GB)
4. 40544 - Database reached it's max size. Switched to read-only
5. 40553 - Session is terminated because of excessive memory usage. (Where there is memory
contention, sessions consuming greater than 16MB for more than 20 seconds are terminated in
the descending order of time the resource has been held)
6. 40549 - Session is terminated because of a long running transaction (SQL Azure kills all
transactions after 24 hours.)
7. 40501 The service is currently busy. Retry the request after 10 seconds. Code: %d (SQL Azure
might terminate the transactions and disconnect the sessions when the CPU utilization,
input/output I/O latency, and the number of busy workers exceed thresholds.

34. Dragon #3: Tooling
• SQL Azure Database Manager
– Silverlight Tool
• SSMS 2008 R2
– Standard Tool

35. Dragon #4: DB Migration
• SSIS
• BCP
• SSMS – Generate Scripts
• DEMO: SQL Azure Migration Wizard

36. Dragon #5: Performance Tuning
• Let’s get this out of the way – What we don’t have:
• no sql error log
• no sql profiler
• no pssdiag
• no bpa (best practices analyzer)
• no xevent
• no server side network capture
• no mps reports(microsoft product support reports)
• Only some DMVs

37. SQL Azure Performance Guide
1) Missing Indexes or better indexes
1) Use DMVs
2) Use Query Plans
2) Covering indexes for the WHERE clause
3) Can sorting be done on the client?
4) Minimize round trips
5) Limit records (paging)
6) Use Connection Pooling (open connection late, close them early)
7) Retry Logic (wait 10 seconds and then retry)
8) Catch errors and understand that when azure throws an error, the tran rollback
9) Caching and batching - evaluate caching and batching to limit round-trips to the server
10) avoid latency - choose a data center nearest to your location
11) Trace connections - traced connections using context_info() to troubleshoot connectivity issues
12) CALL SUPPORT

38. What I Didn’t Cover, But You Might
Want to Research
• Pricing
• Included/Excluded Features
• Product Roadmap
• SQL Azure Reporting
• Backup/Restore Options
• SQL Azure Data Sync
• SQL Azure Odata
• Future Differences Between Editions

39. Good Resources
• SQL Azure Team Blog & Twitter
– http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlazure/
– Twitter: @sqlazure
• Inside SQL Azure – Kalen Delaney
– http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/inside-sql-azure.aspx
• SQL Azure & Entity Framework – Julie Lerman
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309181.aspx
– Doesn’t cover the retry issue.
• My Site – Ike Ellis
– http://www.ellisteam.net
– Twitter: @ike_ellis
• .NET ROCKS – SQL Azure Migration Wizard – December, 2009
– http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=512
• Scott Klein & Herve Rogerro Book
– http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Azure-Experts-Voice-
NET/dp/1430229616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297792245&sr=8-1
• MY O’REILLY BOOK IS COMING THIS SPRING!
– Yes, it has an animal cover.

40. Red Gate Tools for SQL Azure
• SQL Compare
• SQL Data Compare
• SQL Azure Backup

41. DBA role places more focus on logical management
• SQL Azure focus on logical administration
– Schema creation and management
– Query optimization
– Security management (Logins, Users, Roles)
• Service handles physical management
– Automatically replicated with HA “out of box”
– Transparent failover in case of failure
– Load balancing of data to ensure SLA

42. Database Backup Today = Full Copy

43. Backup / Restore – Database Copy
• CREATE DATABASE TechBio2 AS COPY OF servername.
TechBio
• Select * from sys.dm_database_copies
• No point in time

44. Hope for the Future

45. Until Then
• Red-Gate has a tool
– No Point In Time Restore
– Brings the database on-premise! And Restores
from on-premise!

46. Contact Ike
• Email: ike@ellisteam.net
• Twitter: @ike_ellis
• Website: http://www.ellisteam.net
• Phone: 619.922.9801
• User Group: http://www.sdtig.com
• DevelopMentor Courses: http://www.develop.com