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I would love to know how to configure a tiny and very cheap Azure SQL while I debug my github workflow & bicep scripts. (I've had some azure support incidents open for months). A few Kilobytes of storage is fine... I don't need any kind of redundancy or backup. I execute a few trivial queries every couple of days...
I originally used the portal to configure the cheapest and smallest serverless Azure SQL I could and then downloaded the ARM template and decompiled that into bicep and as you can see I'm using GP_S_Gen5:
resource rbacdemoDatabase 'databases@2021-11-01-preview' = {
name: '${name}-rbacdemoDatabase'
sku:{
name: 'GP_S_Gen5'
tier: 'GeneralPurpose'
family: 'Gen5'
capacity: 1
}
According to the azure pricing calculator (West US 2, single database, LRS, vCore, General Purpose, Serverless, Gen5, locally redundant, MaxCore=1, MinVCores0.5... billed cores=1), this should be very cheap: $0.82/month... That sounds great!
However, I noticed that when I failed to shut down the (idle) Azure SQL server over the weekend a couple of months ago I noticed that my bill increased by approximately $10/day...
How do I modify my bicep code to get the $0.82/month (assuming really minimal activity)...
If something stays connected to your Azure SQL serverless database then the database won't be able to get auto-paused. Please read here to why the database does not auto-pause after the delay period.
You can also choose Azure SQL Database (DTU-Model) Basic tier that will make you pay only 5 USD a month only.
Well I could deploy my database again and run that query... But let's suppose I did that and ran the querey and it was not empty.
Since this a trivial demo program, there is only one database access here: Index.razor. This is a trivial blazor server app running inside an app-service website where the website is granted access to the database.
jHere is the source code from the link. This code is invoked by a push button.
try
{
using var connection = new SqlConnection($"Server=tcp:rbac-demo-server.database.windows.net,1433;Authentication=Active Directory Default;Database=rbacdemoDatabase;");
await connection.OpenAsync();
azureWriteSQLStatusManagedIdentity = "Success " + nowString;
using (var cmd = new SqlCommand($"INSERT INTO TEST ([name]) VALUES(@name)", connection))
{
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@name", name);
var n = await cmd.ExecuteNonQueryAsync();
}
executionTime = "" + (DateTime.Now - now).TotalMilliseconds + " ms";
await UpdateForResultsForAzureSQL(now, nowString, connection);
}
As you can see, I'm using a C# "using" statement which should close the connection as soon as the execution is complete.
So is there something else I need to do to close the connection? This is the only code that accesses the SQL Server database.
Also: What would the bicep code to use the Basic DTU module? Is the DTU model also serverless and vulnerable to the same auto-pause problem?
The DTU model does not auto-paused, but you will be charge 5 USD per month only. You won't pay more. It is a fixed amount.
If you still would like to use the serverless flavor, make sure you have not activated these features on the Azure portal for that database, these features can prevent the database from enter auto-pause mode.