1. Scaling DB with SQL Azure
Federations
Alexander Koval
Codemasters International
Software Architect, MCPD

2. Presentation Summary
• Intended Audience: Developers, Architects
• Intended Time: 60 min
• Objectives:
1. Review Scaling concepts for DB
2. Introduce SQL Azure Federations
3. Managing Azure Federations
4. Billing & Pricing
5. Tools & Libraries

3. Problem Areas
Response Time
DB Transactions
DB Size

4. Scaling the DB layer
Scaling UP Table Partitioning
Master/Slave Scaling OUT (Sharding)
Cluster Computing
App Server #1 DB1
App Server #2 DB1
App Server #3 DB1
App Server #3 DB1

5. What is a SQL Azure Federation?
F Federation
e Member #1
d
e
r Federation
User Database a Member #2
t
i Federation
o Member #3
n

6. Terminology
1. Federation
2. Federation Key (UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, INT, BIGINT, VARBINARY)
CREATE FEDERATION Tenant_Fed (id INT RANGE)
3. Federation Member Federation Members
4. Atomic Unit Federation Root
5. Table Data
• Federation Root Central Federated
• Federation Tables Tables Tables
• Reference Tables Reference
• Central Tables Tables

7. Create Federation Table
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TenantDocuments](
[ID] [int] NOT NULL,
[TenantID] [int] NOT NULL,
[Title] [varchar](50) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_Account] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[ID] ASC,
[TenantID] ASC
)WITH (STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF)
)
FEDERATED ON (TID = TenantID)
GO

8. DEMO

9. Management of Azure Federations
ALTER FEDERATION Tenant_Fed SPLIT AT (TenantId=10)
My DB
Accounts_Fed
ALTER FEDERATION federation_name
{ SPLIT AT (distribution_name = boundary_value)
| DROP AT ([LOW|HIGH] distribution_name =
boundary_value)
}[;]

10. Management of Azure Federations

11. Monitoring and Metadata
Federation Operation Views
sys.dm_federation_operations
sys.dm_federation_operation_members
sys.dm_federation_operations_errors
sys.dm_federation_operation_error_members
Federation Operation Views Federation Metadata Tables
sys.federation_history sys.federations
sys.federation_member_history sys.federation_members
sys.federation_distribution_history sys.federation_distributions
sys.federation_member_distributions sys.federation_member_distributions
sys.federated_table_columns

12. DEMO

13. Billing Model
Principles:
• DB Charges are prorated to a day.
Example: Cost of 1Gb Web edition is $0.33/day
• All DB that exist in the day are charged
• Only DB that are in ready state are charged
Operations which affect Billing:
• Federation Creation
• Federation Repartitioning Operations
• Modification of Federation Billing properties
ALTER DATABASE database_name {
MODIFY (<edition_options> [, ..n])
}
<edition_options> ::= {
(MAXSIZE = {1|5|10|20|30|40|50|100|150} GB)
| (EDITION = {'web' | 'business'})
} [;]

14. Tools & Libraries for Scaling DB
• Azure Federation Migration Wizard
http://sqlazurefedmw.codeplex.com/
• Enzo SQL Shard
http://enzosqlshard.codeplex.com/
• CloudNinja
http://cloudninja.codeplex.com/
• Multi-tenant SQL Azure Federation Sample
http://shard.codeplex.com/

15. Resources
• DB Sharding
http://www.codefutures.com/database-sharding/
• MSDN: Federations in SQL Azure
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh597452.aspx
• Federation Statements
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh597463.aspx
• Federation Guidelines and Limitations
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh597469.aspx
• Blog
http://www.codemastersintl.com/Blogs/Alexander-Koval
• Email
akoval@codemastersintl.com

16. Questions?