Best Practices for Handling Transient Conditions in SQL Azure Client Applications

The following post is intended to offer you a set of best practices centered around the development of reliable SQL Azure client applications. The primary focus of this paper is positioned towards handling transient conditions, namely, those intermittent faults, errors and exceptions that need to be accounted for when developing reliable applications for high-density multi-tenant environments such as SQL Azure.

SQL Azure Connection Management

SQL Azure provides a large-scale multi-tenant database service on shared resources. In order to provide a good experience to all SQL Azure customers, your connection to the service may be closed due to several conditions. This article introduces SQL Azure and its network topology. Then, it lists the reasons for connection-losses or throttling cases and provides guidelines and best coding practices on how to manage the connection life cycle in SQL Azure.

Microsoft Delivers New Cloud Tools and Solutions at the Worldwide Partner Conference

stbblogger

12 Jul 2011 9:25 AM

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by STB Blogger

Cloud computing is as big a transformation, and opportunity, as the technology industry has ever seen.  Partners and customers can look to Microsoft for the most comprehensive cloud strategy and offerings, in order to improve their business agility, focus and economics.  Today, at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announced tools and solutions to help partners capitalize on the opportunities, as well as examples of partners and customers already finding success.

Windows Azure Platform:

• Windows Azure Marketplace: The Windows Azure Marketplace will now enable application sales, allowing partners and customers to easily sell, try and buy Windows Azure-based applications.  This capability builds on 99 partner data offerings already available for sale through the Marketplace and more than 450 currently listed applications.  The new Windows Azure Marketplace application selling capability is available today. More information is available on the Windows Azure blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/.
• New examples of Innovative Solutions built on Windows Azure:

• Microsoft partner Wire Stone recently helped Boeing launch its “737 Explained Experience” on Windows Azure to give prospective 737 customers a rich, visually immersive tour of the plane.  A case study is available here. 
• Microsoft partner BrandJourney Venturing helped General Mills create a new business outlet on Windows Azure that enables consumers to find and purchase gluten-free products.  A case study is available here.

Microsoft yesterday released a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting entitled “The ISV Business Case For The Windows Azure Platform:” Findings include that software partners deploying solutions on Windows Azure are generating 20% to 250% new revenue by reaching new customers, saving up to 80% on their hosting costs, and are able to reuse up to 80% of their existing .NET code when moving to Windows Azure.   The study is available here.

Windows Azure Platform Appliance Progress:

• Fujitsu announced in June that they would be launching the Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform (FGCP/A5) service in August 2011, running on a Windows Azure Platform Appliance at their datacenter in Japan. By using FGCP/A5, customers will be able to quickly build elastically-scalable applications using familiar Windows Azure platform technologies, streamline their IT operations management and be more competitive in the global market. In addition, customers will have the ability to store their business data domestically in Japan if they prefer.
• HP also intends to use the appliance to offer private and public cloud computing services, based on Windows Azure. They have an operational appliance at their datacenter that has been validated by Microsoft to run the Windows Azure Platform and they look forward to making services available to their customers later this year.
• eBay is in the early stages of implementing on the Windows Azure platform appliance and has successfully completed a first application on Windows Azure (ipad.ebay.com). eBay is continuing to evaluate ways in which the Windows Azure platform appliance can help improve engineering agility and reduce operating costs.

Private Cloud Computing with Windows Server and System Center:

• Windows Server 8:  In his keynote STB president Satya Nadella highlighted that the next version of Windows Server, codenamed Windows Server 8, will be the next step in private cloud computing.  More information will be shared at the BUILD conference in September. 
• System Center 2012:

• Microsoft announced a beta of the Operations Manager capability of System Center 2012.  System Center 2012 will further help partners and customers build private cloud services that focus on the delivery of business applications, not just infrastructure.  Operations Manager is a key component that provides end-to-end application service monitoring and diagnostics across Windows, others platforms and Windows Azure. Operations Manager will fully integrate technology from the AVIcode acquisition for monitoring and deep insights into applications. The beta will be available next week through this site and more information can be found next week on the System Center blog.
• “Project Concero” is now officially the App Controller capability within System Center 2012. Demonstrated during Satya Nadella’s keynote today, App Controller is a new solution in System Center that gives IT managers control across both private and public cloud assets (Windows Azure) and gives application managers across the company the ability to deploy and manage their applications through a self-service experience. 

SQL Server “Denali”:

• SQL Server “Denali” Community Technology Preview (CTP): SQL Server “Denali,” is a cloud-ready information platform to build and deliver apps across the spectrum of infrastructure.  Customers and partners can use this opportunity to preview the marquee capabilities and new enhancements coming in the next release of SQL Server with the community technology preview available through this site.
• For the first time, customers can begin testing the much anticipated features of “Denali” with today’s CTP, including SQL Server AlwaysOn and Project “Apollo” for added mission critical confidence, Project “Crescent” for highly visual data exploration that unlocks breakthrough insights, and SQL Server Developer Tools code named “Juneau” for a modern development experience across server, BI, and cloud development projects.  For more information about “Denali” or the new CTP, visit the SQL Server Data Platform Insider blog.

A few days old... I was on holiday :-)

The Windows Azure Platform Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform, including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Windows Azure AppFabric.

The April 2011 update of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit has been updated for Windows Azure SDK 1.4, Visual Studio 2010 SP1, includes three new HOLs, and updated HOLs and demos for the new Windows Azure AppFabric portal.

Some of the specific changes with the April update of the training kit includes:

• [New] Authenticating Users in a Windows Phone 7 App via ACS, OData Services and Windows Azure lab
• [New] Windows Azure Traffic Manager lab
• [New] Introduction to SQL Azure Reporting Services lab
• [Updated] Connecting Apps with Windows Azure Connect lab updated for Connect refresh
• [Updated] Windows Azure CDN lab updated for CDN refresh
• [Updated] Introduction to the AppFabric ACS 2.0 lab updated to the production release of ACS 2.0
• [Updated] Use ACS to Federate with Multiple Business Identity Providers lab updated to the production release of ACS 2.0
• [Updated] Introduction to Service Bus lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Eventing on the Service Bus lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Service Remoting lab updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Rafiki demo updated to latest AppFabric portal experience
• [Updated] Service Bus demos updated to latest AppFabric portal

Windows Azure Platform Offer Changes

We also announced several offer changes today, including:

• The extension of the expiration date and increases to the amount of free storage, storage transactions and data transfers in the Windows Azure Introductory Special offer. This promotional offer now includes 750 hours of extra-small instances and 25 hours of small instances of the Windows Azure service, 20GB of storage, 50K of storage transactions, and 40GB of data transfers provided each month at no charge until September 30, 2011. More information can be found here.
  • An existing customer who signed up for the original Windows Azure Introductory Special offer will get a free upgrade as of today. An existing customer who signed up for a different offer (other than the Windows Azure Introductory Special) would need to sign up for the updated Windows Azure Introductory Special Offer separately.
• MSDN Ultimate and Premium subscribers will benefit from increased compute, storage and bandwidth benefits for Windows Azure. More information can be found here.
• The Cloud Essentials Pack for Microsoft partners now includes 750 hours of extra-small instances and 25 hours of small instances of the Windows Azure service, 20GB of storage and 50GB of data transfers provided each month at no charge. In addition, the Cloud Essentials Pack also contains other Microsoft cloud services including SQL Azure, Windows Azure AppFabric, Microsoft Office 365, Windows Intune and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. More information can be found here.

Read carefully: Some important, good changes to the Introductory Special offer, the MDSN subscribers benefits, and the Cloud Essential Pack offer!

New Services and Functionality

A myriad of new Windows Azure services and functionality were unveiled today.   These include:

• An update to the Windows Azure SDK that includes a Web Deployment Tool to simplify the migration, management and deployment of IIS Web servers, Web applications and Web sites. This new tool integrates with Visual Studio 2010 and the Web Platform Installer.  This update will ship later today.
• Updates to the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control service, which provides a single-sign-on experience to Windows Azure applications by integrating with enterprise directories and Web identities.
• Release of the Windows Azure AppFabric Caching service in the next 30 days, which will accelerate the performance of Windows Azure and SQL Azure applications.
• A community technology preview (CTP) of Windows Azure Traffic Manager, a new service that allows Windows Azure customers to more easily balance application performance across multiple geographies.
• A preview of the Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) for Internet Information Services (IIS) Smooth Streaming capabilities, which allows developers to upload IIS Smooth Streaming-encoded video to a Windows Azure Storage account and deliver that video to Silverlight, iOS and Android Honeycomb clients.

Importing and exporting data between on-premises SQL Server and SQL Azure just got a lot easier, and you can get started today with the availability of the Microsoft SQL Server "Denali" Data-tier Application (DAC) Framework v2.0 Feature Pack CTP.  Let's call this the DAC framework from this point on J.  To learn more about DAC, you can read this whitepaper.

If you're eager to try it out, go to the SQL Azure Labs page; otherwise read on for a bit to learn more.

There are 3 important things about this update to the DAC framework:

• 1. New import & export feature: This DAC CTP introduces an import and export feature that lets you store both database schema and data into a single file with a ".bacpac" file extension, radically simplifying data import and export between SQL Server and SQL Azure databases with the use of easy commands.
• 2. Free: This functionality will be shipping in all editions of the next version of SQL Server "Denali"-including free SKUs-and everyone will be able to download it.
• 3. The Future = Hybrid Applications Using SQL Server + SQL Azure: Freeing information to move back and forth from on-premises SQL Server and SQL Azure to create hybrid applications is the future of data. The tools that ship with SQL Server "Denali" will use the DAC framework to enable data movement as part of normal management tasks. 

The Data-tier Application (DAC) framework is a collection of database schema and data management libraries that are strategic to database management in SQL Server and SQL Azure.  In this CTP, the new import and export feature allow for the retrieval and restoration of a full database, including schema and data, in a single operation. 

If you want to archive or move your database between SQL Server versions and SQL Azure, you can export a target database to a single export file, which contains both database schema and data in a single file.  Also included are logins, users, tables, columns, constraints, indexes, views, stored, procedures, functions, and triggers.  Once a database has been exported, users can import the file with the new import operation.  

This release of the import and export feature is a preview for fully supported archival and migration capability of SQL Azure and SQL Server databases.  In coming months, additional enhancements will be made to the Windows Azure Platform management portal. Tools and management features shipping in upcoming releases of SQL Server and SQL Azure will have more capabilities powered by DAC, providing increased symmetry in what you can accomplish on-premises and in the cloud.

How Do I Use It?

Assume a database exists that is running within an on-premises SQL Server 2008 R2 instance that a user has access to.  You can export the database to a single ".bacpac" file by going to a command line and typing:

DacImportExportCli.exe -s serverName -d databaseName -f C:\filePath\exportFileName.bacpac -x -e

Once exported, the newly created file with the extension ".bacpac" can be imported to a SQL Azure database if you type:

DacImportExportCli.exe -s serverName.database.windows.net -d databaseName -f C:\filePath\fileName.bacpac -i -u userName -p password

A DAC database running in SQL Server or SQL Azure can be unregistered and dropped with:

DacImportExportCli.exe -s serverName.database.windows.net -drop databaseName -u userName -p password

You can also just as easily export a SQL Azure database to a local export file and import it into SQL Server.

How Should I Use the Import and Export Features?

It's important to note that export is not a recommended backup mechanism for SQL Azure databases. (We're working on that. so look for an update in the near future).  The export file doesn't store transaction log or historical data.  The export file simply contains the contents of a SELECT * for any given table and is not transactionally consistent by itself.

However, you can create a transactionally consistent export by creating a copy of your SQL Azure database and then doing a DAC export on that.  This article has details on how you can quickly create a copy of your SQL Azure database.  If you export from on-premise SQL Servers, you can isolate the database by placing it in single-user mode or read-only mode, or by exporting from a database snapshot.

We are considering additional enhancements to make it easier to export or restore SQL Azure databases with export files stored in cloud storage - so stay tuned.