This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: New blog articles in Microsoft Tech Community.
Many of you are running workloads on SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (SQL VM) today to leverage cloud agility, elasticity and scalability benefits. SQL VM differentiates by allowing full control on the OS, VM size, storage subsystem and offering free manageability services.
If you choose to self-install SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines instead of choosing a preconfigured SQL Server image from Azure Marketplace, you should register with SQL VM Resource Provider (SQL VM RP) for cost savings with simplified license management and free SQL Server manageability services like automated backup , automated High Availability with Always On AG, automated patching and performance optimized storage configuration.
Today, we are enabling a new way of registering with SQL VM RP for customers running many SQL Server instances on Azure VMs. Bulk registering with SQL VM RP is using the new Azure power shell modules to automate registering with SQL VM RP for a list of subscriptions.
The script will iterate over all VM’s owned by the subscription list provided as input and execute register with SQL VM RP command for all. If the VM is up, running Windows Server 2008 2 and above and had a SQL instance, then registration will be successful. All VMs will be registered in Lightweight management mode with no impact to SQL Server instance or the VM resources. The lightweight agent will simply verify the edition and version of the instance, SQL server instance will not be restarted.
At the end of execution, the script will report the VM’s successfully registered; total VM’s found, failed registrations because the account did not have permission, VM’s that are skipped as the OS was not windows or VM was not running.
The account running the script should have “Virtual Machine Contributor, Contributor or Owner” permissions for the virtual machine being registered in one of the RBAC access levels.
Install the latest version of Az Module today and with a single command bulk register all VM’s running SQL with SQL VM RP to leverage the free manageability services and optimize your return of investment on Azure.