Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • TSQLTuesday.com – Quick WordPress Setup in Azure

    When I agreed to host the T-SQL Tuesday site, I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought about just putting up a static page, one I’d edit, but in some conversations with Adam Machanic, he wanted to have a few people able to manage the site. That makes sense and means I have less to do.

    My first thought had been to build a SQL database, set up a web page, maybe add some logins for people, etc. Sounds great, but that can be a lot of work, and while I don’t mind some projects, I don’t want a big project that’s just a small service. Especially for data that’s really just historical logging.

    When I woke up one morning and found a domain transfer request, I felt some pressure to get something up quickly. One of the great things about using domains on the web is that I could build something quick, point the domain to it, and build something else in the background, moving the domain later. There might be redirect issues, but in this case I expect most people just hit the domain, tsqltuesday.com, so I decided to focus there.

    Azure Websites

    I had experimented a bit with Azure websites, setting a few up, and thought this might be easy. In fact, it was really easy, so I decided to write a bit about the experience. Note, this is what the experience is like in Mar 2017. It could change quarter to quarter, so use the process and images as a rough guide.

    To get started, log into your portal. If you don’t have an Azure account, google how to create one, set it up, and then come back.

    Once you have an account, click New and choose .

    2017-03-11 21_01_53-Web Mobile - Microsoft Azure

    From here, pick “See All” and then find WordPress.

    2017-03-11 21_02_15-Untitled

    Once you select WordPress, you just click Create.

    2017-03-11 21_02_56-WordPress - Microsoft Azure

    I tried to keep this simple, and picked these options.

    2017-03-11 21_03_47-WordPress - Microsoft Azure

    one thing I had to do was pick a size above the free service. This is because the free services don’t allow custom domains, and while tsqltuesday.azurewebsites.net works, it’s not as cool at tsqltuesday.com. Plus Brent had already transferred the domain to me, so I was on the hook.

    Once this was done, I had the site created.

    2017-03-11 21_07_42-tsqltuesday - Microsoft Azure

    Once the deployment completes ,you have a blank WordPress site. You log in with your credentials and start configuring, just as you’d do on wordpress.com or with your own installations.

    2017-03-11 21_09_56-WordPress › Installation

    I took a few guesses on how to organize the site, but I’ll discuss those late. This is really about getting a quick site up, one for your business, for your blog, or whatever you’d like. This is my second WordPress site on Azure, and I’m amazed at how easy it is.

    I’

  • Delete an Azure SQL Database from PowerShell

    Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

    One of the things I’ve been working on is trying to get my DevOps, continuous delivery pipeline working with Azure. Part of that is a test deployment to an Azure SQL Database, which means I need to be able to update an existing database from a backup. Unfortunately, Azure SQL Database doesn’t support a restore over an existing database (yet).

    That means one task I have is to remove an existing database, in order to replace it with a new database with the same name. A little work in the PoSh documentation found Remove-AzureRMSQLDatabase, which is just what I need.

    To use this cmdlet, I need a connection to the Azure space first. I can do that with a credential that I get with this command. Ultimately I need to store this, but interactively this lets me get started:

    Login-AzureRMAccount

    This gets me an interactive login. I enter my account and password. Since I use a Live account, this won’t work in the pipeline, but it gets me going.

    2017-03-10 09_00_34-Sign in to your account

    From here, I can set a few variables I’ll need. I want the name of a resource group, a server, and a database. In my case, I’ll use a few variables. I call the database the “new” one, since I’ll be using an existing one that I’ll recreate from an “old” one.

    2017-03-10 09_03_07-powershell - How to Login without prompt_ - Stack Overflow

    From here, it’s just a question of calling the Remove-AzureRmSqlDatabase cmdlet with parameters. I do that, and get results. Here’s the call

    Remove-AzureRmSqlDatabase -ServerName $server -ResourceGroupName $rgname -DatabaseName $newname

    Here are the results. I’ve blacked out a few ids.

    2017-03-10 09_05_16-Photos

    This clears the database, and after refreshing, I can see it’s gone from my list of Azure SQL Databases.

    2017-03-10 09_08_12-SQL databases - Microsoft Azure

    Not much to this, but it’s part of a larger scheme, which is getting a copy of the production database and restoring it.

  • Building a Database DevOps Process at the Data Platform Summit 2017

    I’m heading to India this August for the Data Platform Summit 2017. I am honored to have been selected to deliver a pre-conference seminar called “Building a Database DevOps Process”, where I’ll walk through the way in which you can include your database alongside application code and deploy it smoothly to various other environments, such as test, QA, UAT, Beta, Staging, Pre-prod, etc.

    DPS2017_Logo_Website

    If you are going to be in Bangalore during the middle of August, register for the DPS and come see my, or another, pre con as well. There are some great ones.

    This will be my first trip to India and I’m looking forward to it. Actually my whole family is looking forward, as I’ll be taking a week or so vacation before the conference to travel with them before I spend a week at work. I should be acclimated to the time change by the time the conference starts, which is good. I’ve got customer training also scheduled, so a busy August for me.

    Now to get a Visa and inoculations. Hope to see you there.

  • SQL Bits in less than a month

    I’m getting excited, and you should as well. Join me at a fantastic conference in the UK this spring. Register today and come to a training day and learn something. I might just see you there, as I’m thinking to take one or two myself.

    I’ll be presenting “Including Your Database in a DevOps CI/CD Process” on Friday. I’ll be looking at how you can deal with the challenges of database code in a software development process.

    There are lots of great sessions, and whether you come for 1 or 2 training days, just the Friday sessions, or on the free Saturday even, this is my favorite SQL Server conference and I’m sure you’ll find it to be an amazing event.