SQL Azure: Is there a “per transaction” cost for Windows Azue SQL Database?

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Question: Is there a “per transaction” cost for Windows Azue SQL Database (SQL Azure)?

Short Answer: No

I recently answered the question on MSDN forum where the question was about Transactions and the associated cost in SQL Azure. As of now, There is no “per transaction” cost associated with SQL Azure. There are two parameters that affect your SQL Azure Bill: 1) Database Size 2) Outbound Data Transfer and an example of an outbound transfer would be data access by an application hosted outside of your Azure DB’s data-center.

If you want to read more about SQL Azure pricing, here’s the official resource:

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/details/#header-4

And here are some of the blog-posts that I’ve written on the same topic:

SQL Azure got a new pricing model!

SQL Azure: Indexes are very helpful but they cost $Money$

Getting started with SQL Azure – Part 3: Provisioning and Billing Model of SQL Azure << Paras Doshi

Upload CSV and excel files to SQL Azure via “Data Transfer” tool

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[UPDATE 9/12/2012: The URL’s that point to the service does not seem to work. The service may be out of “lab phase” and hopefully we would see this integrated in Portal or as an Independent service.]

Microsoft recently announced a tool (which is in CTP) called “Data Transfer” on SQL Azure Labs. It let’s you transfer CSV and excel data to SQL Azure or Windows Azure blob. I think this service would make our task easier than before. Earlier, We had the option to use SQL server integration services (SSIS) or BCP to transfer excel files or CSV files to SQL Azure. It was straightforward too but what if we had the tool in which you just point it to your excel/csv file and it would do try to do the rest. wouldn’t that be easier? Yes, so Data Transfer aims to achieve exactly that. To test drive Data Transfer tool go to https://web.datatransfer.azure.com/

In this blog post, I will show you how to upload an excel file to SQL Azure via this tool:

1. After you have registered yourselves (via a Live ID) on https://web.datatransfer.azure.com/ – you will see

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2. In my case, since I wish to transfer an excel file to SQL Azure, I am going to go with first option i.e. Microsoft SQL Azure

3. In the next step, provide the credentials of a SQL Azure DB (that exists already)

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You have the option of saving a connection. And the drop down that you see in the above image will let you see all your saved connection.

4. In the next step, point to your file and select appropriate options via the Advanced options which has the File Encoding, Column Delimiter, Row delimiter and Text Qualifier options. So this are useful if you had a flat file with {tab} instead of {,} to separate column values. In my case, I am going to leave the advanced options to their default values. Point to the excel file and since my first row has column names – I am going to check the box that says “column names in the first data row” and then click on analyze.

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5. if you had not checked the “Edit table defaults” box, then Done! you can view the status of the process from the My Data tab. It’s this easy.

If you checked the Edit table defaults, the next page would allow you to edit the data-type. The power of this tool resides in the fact that it guesses the data-type and assigns it to the data that we had specified. And if you want to over-ride the data-type chosen by the tool, you can do so here at this page:

BTW: I find this amazing!

Edit table defaults

6. Click on save and the data is ready to be uploaded. it’s that simple. And after the upload, you can view the details here on the “my data” page:

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7. You can log into the SQL Azure manage portal and browse the tables. And after upload, the link to “manage” these tables will also be available in the “my data” page.

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Conclusion:

As you imagine, the process is simple and “Data Transfer” tool makes it easier to upload CSV/Excel file to SQL Azure. And it also let’s you upload a file to Azure blob storage account. Give it a spin! URL:  https://web.datatransfer.azure.com/

And learn more about it here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlazurelabs/labs/datatransfer.aspx

part 9 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

In part 9, I have discussed about developing SQL Azure applications with following subtopics:

– Partially Supported and not supported TSQL statements

– SQL Server features not supported by SQL Azure

– Tools that have support to connect to SQL Azure:

– How can clients or Applications connect to SQL Azure?

 

URL: http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/12/05/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-9-developing-sql-azure-applications-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

 

Summary:

Part 1: We defined SQL Azure and discussed advantages of SQL Azure

Part 2: We created an Azure account and created our very first SQL Azure database

Part 3: We discussed about the provisioning and the billing model of SQL Azure

part4: We discussed the SQL Azure architecture

part 5: we discussed the SQL Azure security model

part 6: We discussed how to migrate databases to SQL Azure.

Part 7: We discussed how to improve performance and backup options in SQL Azure

Part 8: we discussed about Administrative tasks with SQL Azure.

part 8 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

 

In part 8, I have discussed following administrative tasks:

1. Managing firewall rules

2. Managing SQL Azure servers, databases and Logins

3. Troubleshoot connection issues

4. Monitoring database size and costs

5. Monitoring SQL Azure availability

6. Migrating to SQL Azure

 

URL: http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/11/28/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-8-sql-azure-administration-ii-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

 

Summary:

Part 1: We defined SQL Azure and discussed advantages of SQL Azure

Part 2: We created an Azure account and created our very first SQL Azure database

Part 3: We discussed about the provisioning and the billing model of SQL Azure

part4: We discussed the SQL Azure architecture

part 5: we discussed the SQL Azure security model

part 6: We discussed how to migrate databases to SQL Azure.

Part 7: We discussed how to improve performance and backup options in SQL Azure

part 7 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

In part 7, I have discussed following administrative tasks:

1. How to improve performance

2. Backup and restore Strategies

 

URL: http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/11/27/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-7-sql-azure-administration-i-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

 

Summary:

Part 1: We defined SQL Azure and discussed advantages of SQL Azure

Part 2: We created an Azure account and created our very first SQL Azure database

Part 3: We discussed about the provisioning and the billing model of SQL Azure

part4: We discussed the SQL Azure architecture

part 5: we discussed the SQL Azure security model

part 6: We discussed how to migrate databases to SQL Azure.

Part 7: We discussed how to improve performance and backup options in SQL Azure

part 6 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

In part 6, I have discussed the SQL Azure security model:

http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/11/21/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-6-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

Summary:

Part 1: We defined SQL Azure and discussed advantages of SQL Azure

Part 2: We created an Azure account and created our very first SQL Azure database

Part 3: We discussed about the provisioning and the billing model of SQL Azure

part4: We discussed the SQL Azure architecture

part 5: we discussed the SQL Azure security model

part 6: We discussed how to migrate databases to SQL Azure.

How to rename a SQL Azure database?

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Can we rename a database in SQL Azure? Absolutely! In blog post, we will see how we can do that?

First, few things to note:

1. You need to connect to Master Database.

2. And you can rename only user databases. That means the master database cannot be renamed.

3. And the Alter database (which is the TSQL statement to rename database) should be the only statement in the batch.

Now, Here is the query:

 

alter database <old-database-name>

modify name =<new-database-name>

go
Here is the screenshot when I tried to rename the database name by login with the principal server login into the Master Database:

rename database SQL Azure

So that’s it – you can rename the database in SQL Azure.

part 5 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

In part 5, I have discussed the SQL Azure security model:

URL: http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/10/25/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-5-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

Summary:

Part 1: We defined SQL Azure and discussed advantages of SQL Azure

Part 2: We created an Azure account and created our very first SQL Azure database

Part 3: We discussed about the provisioning and the billing model of SQL Azure

part4: We discussed the SQL Azure architecture

part 5: we discussed the SQL Azure security model

Part 4 of “Getting started with SQL Azure” is live!

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Aim of “Getting started with SQL Azure” series is to offer you a set of brief articles that could act as a Launchpad for your to-be wonderful journey of exploring Microsoft’s cloud based database solution i.e. SQL Azure.

In this blog post, I have discussed the SQL Azure architecture. Link:

http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/parasdoshi/archive/2011/10/10/getting-started-with-sql-azure-part-4-lt-lt-paras-doshi.aspx

Just to recap:

In part 3, i have discussed:

1. Provisioning model of SQL Azure

2. Billing Model of SQL Azure

read more: Getting started with SQL Azure – Part 3 << Paras Doshi

In part 2, i have discussed:

1) How to sign up for a Free trial of windows azure (to play with SQL Azure)!

2) How to create your very first SQL Azure database (and a table too!)

3) How to connect to SQL Azure server Via SQL server Management studio.

Read more: Getting started with SQL Azure – Part 2 << Paras Doshi

And in part 1, i have discussed

1) Where SQL Azure fits in the windows azure platform?

2) Defined SQL Azure

3) Advantages of SQL Azure

Read More: Getting started with SQL Azure – Part 1 << Paras Doshi