Get Started with Azure Databases

Welcome to the quickstart guide for leveraging the power of Azure's comprehensive database services. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to provision and connect to your first Azure database.

Choose Your Database Service

Azure offers a variety of managed database solutions to suit different needs:

Azure SQL Database: A fully managed relational database service built on SQL Server.
Azure Database for PostgreSQL: A fully managed relational database service using the open-source PostgreSQL engine.
Azure Database for MySQL: A fully managed relational database service using the open-source MySQL engine.
Azure Cosmos DB: A globally distributed, multi-model database service.
Azure Database for MariaDB: A fully managed relational database service using the open-source MariaDB engine.

For this quickstart, we'll focus on a common choice, Azure SQL Database. The principles are similar for other services.

Quickstart Steps

Create an Azure SQL Database

Navigate to the Azure portal. Search for "SQL databases" and click "Create".

You'll need to configure:

Subscription and Resource group
Database name (e.g., myQuickstartDB)
Server name (must be globally unique, e.g., myquickstartserver123)
Administrator username and password
Compute + storage (select a suitable tier, e.g., Basic or Standard for quickstart)

Click "Review + create" and then "Create" to provision your database.

Configure Firewall Rules

Once the database is deployed, navigate to your SQL database resource in the Azure portal.

Under "Settings", select Firewalls and virtual networks. Click Add client IP to allow your current IP address to connect. You can also add other IP addresses or ranges if needed.

Click Save.

Connect to Your Database

From your SQL database overview page, find the Server name (e.g., myquickstartserver123.database.windows.net). You'll use this to connect.

You can connect using various tools:

Azure Data Studio: A cross-platform database tool.
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): A popular Windows-based tool.
Command-line tools: Like sqlcmd or mssql-cli.

Example using Azure Data Studio/SSMS:

Open your SQL client tool. Enter the server name, select SQL Authentication, and provide the administrator username and password you created.

Server: myquickstartserver123.database.windows.net
Authentication: SQL Server Authentication
Login: your_admin_username
Password: your_admin_password

Once connected, you can create tables, insert data, and run queries.

Next Steps

Congratulations! You've successfully provisioned and connected to your Azure database. Explore these resources to learn more:

Go to Azure Portal