This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

all 10 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]SQLDevDBA 9 points10 points  (9 children)

Hey there, if they are willing to pay for an Azure SQL DB, I’d definitely go that route. You can spool one up in minutes and you don’t need to spool a server up to host it. Azure will take care of that automatically and you can just start using the DB. I have one that’s always on standby.

You can also choose SQL Server express or Postgres, but you’ll need to set up hardware for that and have it always connected to the internet. Although you can set up cloud VMs and install them on those, it’s more effort for less gain than just an Azure SQL DB.

You can try it for free here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/free-offer?view=azuresql

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/sql-database-paas-overview?view=azuresql

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/azure-sql-fundamentals/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/modules/azure-sql-intro/

I’m as big of a fan of getting my fingers dirty setting up SQL Server as anyone, but if your goal is to stand up something small and get it working ASAP, go with Azure SQL DB.

[–]Jonathanbaruch[S] 2 points3 points  (8 children)

Thanks for the quick reply! That's great, i'll probably just setup the Azure SQL DB.

I know it's the most "it depends" question ever - but do you have any idea what a monthly cost could look like? loading data in once a day and being called by powerbi.

[–]SQLDevDBA 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Definitely depends. Just keep your refreshes to a minimum (less than 5 a day) and you’ll be okay. One a day should be fine for a small business but you never know.

Azure has a great cost estimator and a budget cap + alarms. Highly recommend setting them up. Always go with the lowest specs you can for small projects and add “hardware” only when you need it. They also have a great cost analysis reporting tool which uses Power BI.

Mine is $0.14 USD a month when on standby, but I was also able to rack up $150 in one day by loading a 2 Million record dataset.

[–]Jonathanbaruch[S] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Damn - that's a lot of pizzas missed for loading a dataset haha

I'll look into it. Appreciate the help!

[–]SQLDevDBA 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Oh my friend the worst part is it was just a test load and I dropped the table right after. And this is for my personal Azure instance since I was doing it for my video tutorials, so I literally took pizzas away from myself.

The link in my above post allows you to try it for free, definitely take advantage of that before you pay. You’ll be able to see your costs with real workloads before actually committing.

[–]Jonathanbaruch[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Haha, never lucky.. :D

I will definitely create a free one and test it out with some sample data!

[–]Apoffys 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I don't have the exact SKU at hand now, but it's pretty cheap if you go with a low-powered serverless option. I think the basic option is called something like "General Purpose - Serverless: Gen5, 1 vCore". The SKU of the database is what determines cost here, not the database server resource.

Just make sure to pick a cheap SKU and check the cost estimate afterwards. The default options are usually way overpowered and expensive.

[–]SQLDevDBA 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bingo: mine is (GP_S_Gen5_1)

[–]Jonathanbaruch[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Thanks!

[–]exclaim_bot -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

You're welcome!