SQL Azure Setup Screenshots

Finally got my SQL Azure invite code, and started poking around and figured I’d capture a few screenshots for folks who haven’t gotten in there yet.

Once I plugged in my invitation code, I saw a new “project” listed in the console.

If I choose to “Manage” my project, I see my administrator name, zone, and server.  I’ve highlighted options to create a new database and view connection strings.

Given that I absolutely never remember connection string formats (and always ping http://www.connectionstrings.com for a reminder), it’s cool that they’ve provided me customized connection strings.  I think it’s pretty sweet that my standard ADO.NET code can be switched to point to the SQL Azure instance by only swapping the connection string.

Now I can create a new database, shown here.

This is as far as the web portal takes me.  To create tables (and do most everything else), I connect through my desktop SQL Server Management Studio.  After canceling the standard server connection window, I chose to do a “New Query” and entered in the fully qualified name of my server, SQL Server username (in the format user@server), and switched to the “Options” tab to set the initial database as “RichardDb”.

Now I can write a quick SQL statement to create a table in my new database.  Note that I had to add the clustered index since SQL Azure doesn’t do heap tables.

Now that I have a table, I can do an insert, and then a query to prove that my data is there.

Neato.  Really easy transition for someone who has only worked with on-premise, relational databases.

For more, check out the Intro to SQL Azure here, and the MSDN portal for SQL Azure here.  Wade Wegner created a tool to migrate your on-premise database to the cloud.  Check that out.

Lots of interesting ways to store data in the cloud, especially in the Azure world.  You can be relational (SQL Azure), transient (Windows Azure Queue), high performing (Windows Azure Table) or chunky (Windows Azure Blob).  You’ll find similar offerings across other cloud vendors as well. Amazon.com, for instance, provides ways to store/access data in a high performing manner (Amazon SimpleDB), transient (Amazon Simple Queue Service), or chunky (Amazon S3).

Fun times to be in technology.