As organizations see the benefits of the cloud, you may find yourself involved in migration projects which target the move from on-premises SQL Server to the cloud. Are you ready for this? In this session, we will compare and contrast different migration strategies. We will cover different ways to migrate your SQL Server database from on-premises to Azure, and how to detect and solve potential migration blockers and issues.

1. Azure SQL Database
Are you ready for the cloud?

2. Murilo Miranda
Lead Database Consultant @ Pythian
• Site:
http://murilo.pt/
• Twitter:
@murilocmiranda
• LinkedIn:
https://pt.linkedin.com/in/murilomiranda

3. Agenda
• Current Offerings
• Preparing the migration
• Migration challenges
• Possibilities

4. Warning

5. Current Offerings

6. 9/12/2017 |
What is SQL Database?
On premises
Shared
Lower cost
Dedicated
Higher cost
Higher administration Lower administration
Off premises

7. What is SQL Database?

8. What is SQL Database?

9. What is SQL Database?
Relational
database-as-service
Near-zero administration
Supports existing SQL Server tools
Scalable and easy to deploy
Cloud-first

10. What is SQL Server in Azure?

11. What is SQL Server in Azure?

12. Service Tiers
• A Service Tier is conditioned by different factors:
• Maximum Database Size;
• Backup retention;
• The “horsepower” – DTUs;
• Four different offerings:
• Basic
• Standard
• Premium
• Premium RS

13. Service Tiers
• The new Premium RS
• Same performance levels, security features and business
continuity features as the Premium tier a
• Reduced SLA - lower number of redundant copies than Premium
or Standard databases.
• Possible data loss of up to 5 minutes.

14. Obj DTUs Price
S0 10 $15
S1 20 $30
S2 50 $75
S3 100 $150
Obj DTUs Price
P1 125 $465
P2 250 $930
P4 500 $1.860
P6 1.000 $3.720
P11 1.750 $7.001
P15 4.000 $16.000
Obj DTUs Price
Basic 5 $4,99
SQL DB Edition:
Obj DTUs Price
PRS1 125 $116
PRS2 250 $232
PRS4 500 $465
PRS6 1.000 $930

15. Preparing the Migration

16. Preparing the Migration
• Before we start:
• We need to detect and correct potential showstoppers;
• Assess the performance objective;

17. Database Migration Assistant (DMA)
• Upgrade Advisor was retired 
• Assesses on-premises SQL Server instances migrating to Azure SQL
database
• Showstoppers
• Partially or unsupported features
• https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/datamigration/dma/

18. DTU Calculator
• DTU Calculator
• Online service (http://dtucalculator.azurewebsites.net/)
• Based on collected performance indicators.
• Processor - % Processor Time
• Logical Disk - Disk Reads/sec
• Logical Disk - Disk Writes/sec
• Database - Log Bytes Flushed/sec
• Does not take into account other requirements.

19. Migration Challenges

20. Migration Challenges
• Migrate to Azure is not always easy…
• There are no “.bak” files here.
• The database size may be a problem.
• The available tools are not as best as
you wanted ☺
• The migration window is not unlimited…

21. Possibilities

22. Possibilities
• There are no backups, really?
• Yes, my friend. Deal with it.
• The workaround?
• BACPAC!!

23. Possibilities
• Why all of this?? There are easier ways!!
• That’s true. There are easier ways.
• SSMS has a built-in Azure Migration Wizard.

24. Possibilities
• This is not the solution…
• Usually freezes for larger databases.
• How long would be the migration window?

25. Possibilities
• Solving the “freeze” problem.
• Use SSDT!

26. Possibilities
• Ok, but we still have the “availability” problem…
• Replicate it! Wait… replicate??
• It also helps if the transfer fails…

27. Possibilities
• Using replication to deploy to Azure
• SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server 2014 SP1 CU3
• SQL Server 2014 RTM CU10
• SQL Server 2012 SP2 CU8

28. Recapping
• Small database with downtime
• Bacpac files + Azure Blob Storage
• Azure Migration Wizard
• Bigger databases with downtime
• Bacpac files + Azure Blob Storage
• Use SSDT
• Replication for cases where no downtime is allowed

29. Coming soon…
• A new database migration service
• SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL to Azure SQL Database or SQL Server on IaaS
• A offering: Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Migrate SQL Server to SQL as a Service with no changes
• Support SQL Agent, 3-part names, DBMail, CDC, Service Broker
• Cross-database + cross-instance querying
• Extensibility: CLR + R Services
• SQL profiler, additional DMVs support, Xevents
• Native back-up restore, log shipping, transaction replication

30. Thank You!
Murilo Miranda
@murilocmiranda
murilo.miranda@gmail.com