Monthly Archives: March 2016
TechNet on Tour – Increasing efficiency and scalability with Windows Server 2016 and Microsoft cloud
Want to learn how to evolve your datacenter into a true hybrid cloud model to achieve greater efficiency, flexibility and scalability? If you are around Redmond, WA – sign up for free one-day training event – https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x111759537c
This training will cover:
- Confidently virtualize your mission critical workloads on premises with Hyper-V, and in the cloud with Microsoft Azure
- Implement new software-defined storage and network architectures to increase storage performance, flexibility and redundancy
- Get the smallest footprint, reduced patching, and most cloud-optimized OS performance available, with Nano Server
- Extend datacenter resources by using virtual networking to bridge the gap between your on-premises infrastructure and Microsoft Azure
- Explore single-click deployment of complex, multi-tier apps across VMs, storage, and networking with the new Azure Resource Manager
I will be delivering one of the sessions. See you there at the venue. J
Azure Gallery Image for SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate
With first release candidate for SQL Server 2016 is available – https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2016/03/07/first-release-candidate-of-sql-server-2016-now-available/ – , how best and fast can we try it out? With the image for SQL Server 2016 RC0 available in Azure Gallery, it is easier to get started with it on an Azure Virtual Machine. You can search for SQL 2016 images in the gallery and create virtual machine from there.
Today, we get multiple versions and editions – including Express – of SQL Server from Azure Image Gallery.
- SQL Server 2016 RC0 Evaluation on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2016 CTP3.3 Evaluation on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2016 CTP3 Evaluation on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 Web on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 Standard on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 SP1 Web on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 SP1 Standard on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 SP1 Express on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 SP1 Enterprise on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2014 Enterprise on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Web on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Web on Windows Server 2012
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Standard on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Standard on Windows Server 2012
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Express on Windows Server 2012
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Enterprise on Windows Server 2012 R2
- SQL Server 2012 SP2 Enterprise on Windows Server 2012
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Web on Windows Server 2008 R2
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Standard on Windows Server 2008 R2
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Express on Windows Server 2008 R2
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3 Enterprise on Windows Server 2008 R2
Next Steps
I found this article good – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ten-ways-sql-server-2016-change-way-we-do-things-kevin-chant?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like. Get started with SQL Server 2016 on Azure Virtual Machine, and also do follow various learning material made available at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/data-driven.aspx
SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine – More than a IaaS
I was doing a webinar last week about running SQL workloads on Azure Virtual Machine. An interesting topic of discussion was yes, when we think of virtual machine, it is purely Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). However, when we think of running SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine, we get a lot more capabilities / features that we would typically do not expect on IaaS offering.
Automated Patching
We can enable automated patching, both Windows & SQL Server patches, to be applied on the virtual machine once every day or once every week. We can also provide the patching time window for Azure to apply the patches.
Automated Backup
We can configure automated backup of SQL Server 2014 Enterprise and Standard virtual machines, to retain the backups for up to 30 days. We can optionally configure the backups to be encrypted.
Learn More
Read more from the official blog https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dataplatforminsider/2015/01/29/automated-backup-and-automated-patching-for-sql-server-in-azure-portal-and-powershell/.
Imagine - Experiment - Realize 