Azure SQL Database Overview - MSDN Documentation

Introduction to Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform as a service (PaaS) database engine that handles most of the database management functions like upgrading, patching, backups, and read-only secondaries without user involvement. Azure SQL Database is built on the SQL Server engine, so if you're familiar with SQL Server, you'll find Azure SQL Database very familiar.

Key Benefits

High Availability: Built-in redundancy and failover capabilities ensure your database is always available.
Scalability: Easily scale your database resources up or down based on demand.
Security: Robust security features including encryption, threat detection, and access control.
Performance: Optimized for high performance with various service tiers and compute options.
Managed Service: Microsoft handles infrastructure maintenance, patching, and backups, allowing you to focus on development.

Core Concepts

Azure SQL Database offers several deployment options and service tiers to meet different needs:

Single Database Elastic Pools Managed Instance

Single Database

A single database is an isolated database with its own set of resources managed via a logical server. It's ideal for new cloud-native applications or modernizing existing applications where you need a database for a single application. You can also group multiple single databases into an Elastic Pool.

Elastic Pools

Elastic pools provide a simple, cost-effective solution for managing and scaling multiple databases that have varying usage demands and need their resources. All databases in an elastic pool share a single set of resources (e.g., CPU, memory, IO) or a defined amount of resources. This is useful for SaaS applications where each customer has their own database.

Managed Instance

Azure SQL Managed Instance provides near 100% compatibility with the latest on-premises SQL Server Enterprise Edition. It's a fully managed PaaS offering that is ideal for customers looking to lift and shift their on-premises SQL Server workloads to Azure. It offers greater instance-level features compared to single databases and elastic pools.

Service Tiers and Hardware

Azure SQL Database offers different service tiers and hardware configurations to match your performance and cost requirements:

General Purpose: Cost-effective for most common workloads.
Business Critical: Offers high performance and availability for mission-critical applications.
Hyperscale: A scalable and elastic tier designed for very large databases.

Within these tiers, you can choose between different compute options: vCore or DTU (Database Transaction Unit) models.

Getting Started

To begin using Azure SQL Database, you typically need to:

Create an Azure account if you don't have one.
Provision an Azure SQL Database server.
Create a database on that server.
Configure firewall rules to allow connections.
Connect to your database using tools like SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Azure Data Studio, or your application code.

Example: Creating a Single Database using T-SQL (Conceptual)

-- Connect to your logical server first
USE master;
GO

-- Create a new database
CREATE DATABASE MyNewDatabase
(EDITION = 'Standard', SERVICE_OBJECTIVE = 'S0');
GO

-- Set firewall rules (this is a conceptual example, actual implementation varies)
-- EXEC sp_set_firewall_rule N'AllowMyClientIP', '0.0.0.0', '255.255.255.255';
-- GO

Last Updated: October 26, 2023