Free Microsoft SQL Azure training and a cool Migration Wizard utility

MSDev – Recent SQL Azure Posts

Microsoft SQL Azure Tooling
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on October 5th!

This session will cover the following topics:

• SQLCMD Basics
• Deployment
• Development
• Management
• Provisioning

Microsoft SQL Azure Security Model
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on October 5th!

This session will cover the following topics:

• Authentication
• Authorization

Microsoft SQL Azure Overview for the Technical Decision Maker
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on September 28th!

This overview gives attendees an understanding of SQL Azure and will highlight core functionality.

Microsoft SQL Azure Overview for Developers
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on September 28th!

This session will cover the following topics:

• SQL Azure Overview
• SQL Azure Data Access
• SQL Azure Architecture
• SQL Azure Provisioning Model

Microsoft SQL Azure RDBMS Support
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on September 28th!

This session will cover the following topics:

• Creating, accessing and manipulating tables, views, indexes, roles, procedures, triggers, and functions
• Insert, Update, and Delete
• Constraints
• Transactions
• Temp tables
• Query support

Microsoft SQL Azure Programmability
Course Type: Web Seminar
Available On Demand Starting on September 28th!

This session will cover how to programmatically interact with SQL Azure using the following APIs:

• ADO.NET
• ODBC
• PHP

Wade Wegner - SQL Azure Migration Wizard

“In my opinion, SQL Azure is the “secret sauce” of the Windows Azure Platform.  Through SQL Azure, you have the ability to store your data in a true cloud-based relational database.  It’s as simple as deploying your database to SQL Azure and updating your connection string to point to the new database – done!  I think this really provides a core differentiator between the Windows Azure Platform and other cloud vendors.

Nevertheless, despite all the benefits you get from SQL Azure today, we’re still in CTP – SQL Azure is not yet released!  Consequently, there are a few places where it’s a bit rough around the edges.  In particular, the tooling through SQL Server Management Studio leaves a bit to be desired and some of the differences between what’s supported in SQL Server 2005/2008 versus SQL Azure can be a bit confusing.  It took me hours to manually modify the SQL script of a moderately complex database so that I could deploy it into SQL Azure.  What was missing was a good tool that would help with this process.  Fortunately, my good friend and coworker George Huey has made this process much easier by creating the SQL Azure Migration Wizard.

At it’s core, the SQL Azure Migration Wizard help you migrate your SQL Server databases into SQL Azure.  Point to your local database, walk through the wizard, and the end result is a SQL script you can deploy to SQL Azure – in fact, the tool will even deploy it for you.  I used this tool against the same database that took me hours to manually migrate and the process only took a few minutes.

…”

Since Azure is nearing commercial release (< Confessions of .NET Junkie Eric Golpe /> -  Less than 75 days left until Commercial Launch of Windows Azure at PDC 2009) I thought I’d capture and share a cool SQL Azure utility and some free training…

Please Note: Windows Azure != SQL Azure. They are related, kind of, but in the end are separate services. Please see Windows Azure Platform for more information on Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the other services that are part of the Azure platform.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
SQL Data Services, now a “real” SQL Server in the cloud – Change the connection string to point to SDS and “have it just work”
SSDS SDK Released (Beta)