20May 2013 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Azure does Powershell too

Azure, PowerShell
Or, I guess it might be more appropriate to say that Powershell does Azure. Regardless, there are a set of commandlets for Azure and Azure SQL Database. Here's the link to get you started and the basic documentation. After that, it's a little tricky to know for sure what's required. Follow the instructions on the link to get the basic set up done, and then I'll show you just a little bit about how you can manage your Windows Azure SQL Database through PowerShell. First up, you need to set up a context, which is basically a connection to your Azure server. This requires very specific objects. The code below outlines what you need: [crayon-5a6cf580ec86d788017544/] Nothing to it really. You create the PSCredential, your WASD SQL login, proving your user…
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25Mar 2013 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Execution Plans in Azure SQL Database

Azure
Microsoft has stated pretty clearly that they're putting code on Azure first, ahead of the desktop. Which makes one wonder when we're going to start to see some of this cool stuff within SSMS. What cool stuff you ask? Well, let me explain. Let's start with a query: [crayon-5a6cf580ed3f9841817425/] When I run this on Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD) I get the following execution plan: Kind of weird, kind of useful, right? First thing new that I can do is zoom in using that slider bar you seen in the lower left and then graphical part of the plan looks like this: The icons have shifted into the corner and you get the costs of every operator. You also get text describing what the operator does. You can scroll around…
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