Introduction:
In this article we are going to see the list of enhancements done with the
SQL Azure Q2 2011 Database Service Update officially announced on 9th September
2011. Microsoft provides this update with a much enhanced user interface for the
administration of the server and the database in an effective way.
Overview:
Previously, the Microsoft Azure Team provided the online Data Manager Tool for
administering the Schema and data of SQL Azure databases. But with this release
they have replaced the Online Data Manager tool with the new SQL Azure Data
Management Portal which includes all the functionality of the Data Manager Tool
along with the Data Administration Capability including the ability including
the Import and Export (CTP). Let's jump start to see the step by step process on
the new enhancements of this release.
Steps:
Login to the Windows Azure Management Portal using the below link(Need to
have valid subscription)
www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/
We need to provide our login credentials by
clicking on the Sign in to management portal as highlighted in the above screen,
after successful login we will redirected to a nice interface as shown in the
screen below.
Now click on the Database tab in the left side
menu of the Management portal and we can see a nice interface as shown in the
screen below.
We can see the subscription listed, clicking on
the subscription list will list down the servers and the databases inside the
servers as shown in the screen below. Also we can see the enhanced Ribbon menu
at the top as highlighted in the screen below.
- Shows the Database server Name listed
under the subscription.
- Shows the list of database available for
the particular server selected.
- New Ribbon Menu with the list of enhanced
features which we are going to see in details in upcoming sections.
The first enhancement we can see is the Server and
Database Manage, before the Q2 2011 Service update release we don't have an
option for server management. Now click on the Server Manage button as
highlighted in the screen below.
Clicking on Manage Database server button will
launch a new SQL Azure Management Portal. We need to provide the Administrator
credentials(Which we gave while creating the server) to get authenticated
and login to the server. The SQL Azure Management Portal will look as shown in
the screen below.
Provide valid credentials and click on the Log On
button will provide some error while connecting to the server as shown in the
screen below.
Clicking on the error "There was an error
connecting to the server" will provide the exact error which indicates that the
Firewall blocked us. We need to enable the Firewall rule (Check our previous
article on how to enable a firewall rule using the link) as shown in the screen
below.
After successfully adding the firewall rule, now
click on the logon button to get authenticated to the server. Upon successful
login we can see a nice interface for Database server administration as shown in
the screen below.
Conclusion:
In our next article we will see the other enhancements related to the SQL
Azure Management Portal and the SQL Azure Q2 2011 service release. We have more
enhanced features available with the release and thanks to Microsoft Azure team
for providing the enhancements which gives developers and administrators much
control over the database and server online.