Autoscaling Azure SQL Database

Question

We have an application that uses Azure SQL for the database backend. Under normal load/conditions this database can successfully run on a Premium 1 plan. However, during the early morning hours we have jobs that run that increase database load. During these few hours we need to move to a Premium 3 plan. The cost of a Premium 3 is about 8 times more, so obviously we do not want to pay the costs of running on this plan 24/7.

Is it possible to autoscale the database up and down? Cloud services offer an easy way to scale the number of instances in the Azure Portal, however, nothing like this exists for Azure SQL databases. Can this be done programmatically with the Azure SDK? I have been unable to locate any documentation on this subject.

Answer 1

After digging through the articles in @ErikEJ's answer (Thanks!) I was able to find the following, which appears to be newly published with the release of the Elastic Scale preview:

Changing Database Service Tiers and Performance Levels

The following REST APIs are now newly available as well, which let you do pretty much whatever you want to your databases:

REST API Operations for Azure SQL Databases

And for my original question of scaling service tiers (ex. P1 -> P3 -> P1):

Update Database REST API

With these new developments I am going to assume it's only a matter of time before autoscaling is also available as a simple configuration in the Azure Portal, much like cloud services.

Answer 2

Another way to do it is using Azure automation and using run book below:

param
(
    # Desired Azure SQL Database edition {Basic, Standard, Premium}
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)] 
    [string] $Edition,

    # Desired performance level {Basic, S0, S1, S2, P1, P2, P3}
    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)] 
    [string] $PerfLevel

)

inlinescript
{
    # I only care about 1 DB so, I put it into variable asset and access from here
    $SqlServerName = Get-AutomationVariable -Name 'SqlServerName'
    $DatabaseName = Get-AutomationVariable -Name 'DatabaseName'


    Write-Output "Begin vertical scaling script..."

    # Establish credentials for Azure SQL Database server 
    $Servercredential = new-object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential("yourDBadmin", ("YourPassword" | ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force)) 

    # Create connection context for Azure SQL Database server
    $CTX = New-AzureSqlDatabaseServerContext -ManageUrl “https://$SqlServerName.database.windows.net” -Credential $ServerCredential

    # Get Azure SQL Database context
    $Db = Get-AzureSqlDatabase $CTX –DatabaseName $DatabaseName

    # Specify the specific performance level for the target $DatabaseName
    $ServiceObjective = Get-AzureSqlDatabaseServiceObjective $CTX -ServiceObjectiveName "$Using:PerfLevel"

    # Set the new edition/performance level
    Set-AzureSqlDatabase $CTX –Database $Db –ServiceObjective $ServiceObjective –Edition $Using:Edition -Force

    # Output final status message
    Write-Output "Scaled the performance level of $DatabaseName to $Using:Edition - $Using:PerfLevel"
    Write-Output "Completed vertical scale"
}

Ref:
Azure Vertically Scale Runbook
Setting schedule when u want to scale up/down.
For me, I used 2 schedules with input parameters, 1 for scaling up and another one for scaling down.
Hope that help.

Answer 3

Yes, that feature has is available: Azure SQL Database Elastic Scale

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/sql-database/sql-database-elastic-scale-introduction

Answer 4

In some cases the easiest option might be to just run SQL query as described in msdn.

For example:

ALTER DATABASE [database_name] MODIFY (EDITION = 'standard', SERVICE_OBJECTIVE = 'S3', MAXSIZE = 250 GB)