Windows Azure Platform Data Storage

David Robinson

Senior Program Manager

Microsoft

david.robinson@microsoft.com

Agenda

• Windows Azure Platform Data Storage Options• Getting Started with SQL Azure Data Storage• Getting Started with Windows Azure Data Storage

– Blobs– Tables– Queues– Drives

• Inspecting the contents of Windows Azure Data Storage

Objectives

• Learn the data storage options offered by the Windows Azure Platform and become familiar with choosing and using the appropriate one for your application

Azure Platform Data Storage Options• SQL Azure

• Relational data storage• Windows Azure Data Storage

• Blobs• Unstructured data storage

• Tables• Semi-structured or tabular data storage

• Queues• Buffered delivery data storage

• Drives• Durable NTFS volumes that Windows Azure

applications can use. See: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVC14

SQL Azure Features

• Supported– Tables, Indexes,

Views– Stored Procedures– Triggers– Constraints– Table Variables– Temp Tables

(#Name)

• Not Supported– Physical Server Access – Catalog DDL– Common Language

Runtime– Service Broker– Distributed Transactions

and Queries

SQL Azure

• Initial Services– Database – Core SQL Server database capabilities

• Future Services– Data Sync – Enables the sync framework– Additional SQL Server capabilities available as a service:

Business Intelligence and Reporting– New services: Reference Data and Secure Data Hub

SQL AzureDeployment

Web Portal(API)

SQL AzureTDS

DB Script

SQL AzureAccessing databases

Web Portal(API)

SQL AzureTDS

Your App

Change Connection String

Database Replicas

Replica 1

Replica 2

Replica 3

DB

Single Database Multiple Replicas

Single Primary

SQL AzureDatabase Monitoring & Recovery

Web Portal(API)

SQL AzureTDS

Your App

!

SQL Azure Server Creation

SQL Azure Firewall Maintenance

Simple rules Easy one-screen portal maintenance

SQL Azure Database Connection String

• An administrative user is created with the server• User has system administrator permissions like sa• Server=tcp:itte80vcfq.database.windows.net;

Database=FabrikamAzureDB;User ID=davidrob;Password=myPassword;Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;

Database Migrations

• Scripts–Transfer Schema

• BCP–Transfer Data

• SSIS (SQL Server Integration Service)–Transfer Schema and Data

Database Migrations (Cont.)

• The SQL Azure Migration Wizard helps you migrate your local SQL Server 2005 / 2008 databases into SQL Azure. The wizard walks you through the selection of your SQL objects, creates SQL scripts suitable for SQL Azure, and allows you to migrate your data.”

http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

Database Management using SQL Management Studio

Getting Started with Windows Azure Data Storage

Windows Azure Data Storage

Account Name / Key

• AccountName– A unique name identifying the Azure Data Storage

• AccountKey– A blob of encrypted data used for authentication

Windows Azure Data Storage - Blobs

• Unstructured data storage• Partitioned by container• Unlimited containers

Windows Azure Data Storage - Tables• Windows Azure Table provides scalable, available,

and durable structured (or semi-structured) storage in the form of tables.

• The tables contain entities, and the entities contain properties.

• The tables are scalable to billions of entities and terabytes of data, and may be partitioned across thousands of servers.

• The tables support ACID transactions over single entities and rich queries over the entire table.

• Simple and familiar .NET and REST programming interfaces are provided via ADO.NET Data Services.

• http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153401

Windows Azure Data Storage – Tables (Terms Part 1)• Table – contains a set of entities. • Entity (Row) – Entities are the basic data items

stored in a table. • Property (Column) – This represents a single

value in an entity. • PartitionKey – The first key property of every

table. The system uses this key to automatically distribute the table’s entities over many storage nodes.

Windows Azure Data Storage – Tables (Terms Part 2)• RowKey – A second key property for the table.

This is the unique ID of the entity within the partition it belongs to.

• Timestamp – Every entity has a version maintained by the system.

• Partition – A set of entities in a table with the same partition key value.

• Sort Order – There is a single index provided for the CTP, where all entities in a table are sorted by PartitionKey and then RowKey

SQL Azure and Windows AzureTable Comparison

SQL Azure Tables• Fully structured• Strongly typed• Relational (RDMS)• Highly scalable

Windows Azure Tables• Semi-structured• Loosely typed• Non-Relational (Not RDMS)• Massively scalable

Windows Azure Data Storage - Queues• Buffered delivery data storage• Read at least once• Delete to remove message, otherwise is returned

to queue• Partitioned by Queue Name

Q & A

Resources• Azure Portal

– http://windows.azure.com

• Tools– SQL Azure Migration Wizard

• http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

– Azure Storage Explorer • http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=35189

– Windows Azure Management Tool (MMC)• http://cloudfex.com/cs/blogs/cloud/archive/2009/05/17/windows-azure-management-tool-mmc.aspx

• Windows Azure Forums– http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ssdsgetstarted/threads

ResourcesWindows Azure Data Storage

• Haridas, Jai. “Windows Azure Tables and Queues Deep Dive”. Microsoft PDC. 2009. http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVC09

• Calder, Brad. “Windows Azure Blob Deep Dive”. Microsoft PDC. 2009. http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVC14

Resources – White Papers

• Windows Azure Table – Programming Table Storage– http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153401

• Windows Azure Blob – Programming Blob Storage– http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153400

• Windows Azure Queue – Programming Queue Storage– http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153402