Looking for the free version of the SQL Server Management Studio that works directly with SQL Azure?  You need SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2 Express Edition.  Use this link to download and choose Management Tools only.

Today we announced the details of our plans to accelerate the delivery of core relational database features as part of SDS. There has been quite a bit of buzz about SDS over the past couple weeks and it is great to be able to share the details more broadly...

Hi folks, As promised, here are the download links for SSMS in 32bit and 64bit flavors. The full download of SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP can be found here . I’ll post some walkthroughs of SSMS in the coming days. 6 days to PDC - W00t!!!! See you there...

When you generate a SQL Azure server via the SQL Azure portal , you generate a user name and password at the same time. This is your administrative account it has access to all databases on that server. However, you might want to give other people access...

Since I wrote this post in 2010, Microsoft has come out with an offically supported version of ASP.NET sessions that run on SQL Azure. The ASP.NET Universal Providers extend Session, Membership, Roles and Profile support to SQL Compact Edition and SQL...

This post was put together by one of our incredible support engineers, Abi Iyer, to help you to troubleshoot some of the common connectivity error messages that you would see while connecting to SQL Azure as listed below: A transport-level error has occurred...

As a DBA I have done a lot of work improving I/O performance for on-premise SQL Server installations. Usually it involves tweaking the storage system, balancing databases across RAID arrays, or expanding the count of files that the tempdb is using; these...

At PDC ‘09, I showed a glimpse of a new Silverlight tool we were working on to allow you to develop and manage your SQL Azure databases. We showed updated versions of this at MIX’10 and TechEd North America 2010 and promised for a CTP this summer. Looking...

We are going to start a new series of posts focusing on the basics of SQL Azure and build on top of these to give you more detailed information about building and migrating applications to SQL Azure. Unlike SQL Server, every table in SQL Azure needs to...

Check out the free trial of Microsoft® SQL Azure Database Community Technology Preview (CTP). SQL Azure Database, a part of the Windows Azure platform, is a cloud-based database service built on Microsoft SQL Server technology. With SQL Azure organizations...

When you horizontally partitioning data across multiple SQL Azure databases or using Data Sync Server for SQL Azure, there might come a time when you need to write to a member database without causing primary key merge conflicts. In this case you need...

In this blog post we will show you how to export data from your SQL Azure database to a local SQL Server database using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard in SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2. This is a great technique to backup your data on SQL...

The original blog post published here has been moved to the wiki section of TechNet and can be found here .  It addressed many of the aspects of transaction handling in SQL Azure. Many of the question posted below have been addressed by updating...

Currently, SQL Azure doesn’t support running SQL Server Agent in the cloud. If you need SQL Server Agent type functionality for SQL Azure, you can use a Windows Azure worker role and some custom code, I will show you how in this blog post series. “Secret...

With the release of Service Update 4 for SQL Azure you now have the ability to make a snapshot of your running database on SQL Azure. This allows you to quickly create a backup before you implement changes to your production database, or to create a test...

One of the challenges you face in running a highly secure SQL Azure environment is too keep your connection string to SQL Azure secure. If you are running Windows Azure you need to provide this connection string to your Windows Azure code, however you...

When using a web enabled database like SQL Azure, it requires connections over the internet or other complex networks and because of this, you should be prepared to handle unexpected dropping of connections.  Established connections consist of: connections...

In an effort to make it easier for you to stay on top of the latest product releases, resources, tools and news around the Windows Azure platform, today, we’re excited to announce that the SQL Azure blog is moving into what will now be called the...

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...

I love GUIDs -- the uniqueidentifier data type in SQL Server. I use them for everything, domain names, unique error message, and for primary keys in my database tables, etc… -- don’t get me started. About two years ago, I started using uniqueidentifier...

BCP is a great way to locally backup your SQL Azure data, and by modifying your BCP based backup files you can import data into SQL Azure as well. In this blog post, we will learn: How to export data out of tables in SQL Azure server into a data...

This is the third part in a multi-part blog series about securing your connection string in Windows Azure. In the first blog post ( found here ) a technique was discussed for creating a public/private key pair, using the Windows Azure Certificate Store...

Earlier this week we published a whitepaper entitled Sharding with SQL Azure to the TechNet wiki. In the paper, Michael Heydt and Michael Thomassy discuss the best practices and patterns to select when using horizontal partitioning and sharding with your...

In the world of relational databases circular references are schema structures where foreign keys relating the tables create a loop. Circular references cause special types of issues when trying to synchronize two relational database where the foreign...

A few short weeks ago we announced the SQL Azure Database August CTP. Since the announcement, tens of thousands in the community have signed up for the service and have provided us with a tremendous amount of positive feedback. Today, the SQL Azure Database...