Category: Azure

Finding missing indexes and quick optimising of SQL Azure

If you are looking for a quick way to improve your SQL Azure performance then you can check to see if SQL Azure has determined if any useful indexes are missing.

In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) run the following against your database

select * from sys.dm_db_missing_index_details

This will output something like (I have obscured some sensitive names)

 

For example, the above suggested I made the following indexes on AccessNoXRefs table.

For more information see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms345434.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/dn133166.aspx

How to reset your Remote desktop user account expiry date on your Azure cloud service

If you have not re-deployed your azure cloud service for a while you might just find that your remote access account has expired. Here is a simple way to push out the expiry date without re-deploying.

  1. Login to the Azure Management Console ( https://manage.windowsazure.com ), navigate to you cloud service and select the configure tab
  2. Download the configuration and save to a local temp area.
  3. Open it up in notepad
  4. Find the setting that looks like
    <ns0:Setting name=”Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration” value=”2013-09-07T23:59:59.0000000+01:00″ />
  5. Just change the year to sometime in the future e.g. 2016 and save.
  6. Then from the same configure page in the Azure management console, upload the config file.
  7. Wait a few minutes while the file is process and voila! you can now log in. Of course you must know the original password and usename you used when you last deployed.

IISRESET and Microsoft Azure cloud services don’t mix well!

I recently performed am IISRESET on some production Azure cloud servers and found to my horror that the website died. A restart resolved the issue, but I had just discovered a little too late that IISRESET is not an option on a Cloud Services server.

This blog (http://www.morestuffabout.net/2012/01/game-over-on-azure-dont-iisreset/) explains some of the alternative options, such as using a utility called ASPRESET which you can find info about at ASPRESET – Jon Galloway blog. This can help avoid needing to do an IISRESET.