How to Create and Activate a New Windows Azure and SQL Azure Account or Upgrade an Existing Account
During the late afternoon or early evening of 1/4/2010, it finally became possible to upgrade Windows Azure, SQL Azure and Azure AppFabric accounts with the Introductory MSDN Premium Benefit quotas.
Update 1/7/2009: Although this post’s title original title “How to Create and Activate an Introductory MSDN Premium Windows Azure and SQL Azure Account Upgrade” specifies an Introductory MSDN Premium benefit upgrade, the post is equally applicable to all subscription offers. See the new message regarding upgrades to two or more accounts in step 14.
Update 1/6/2010: See new information about an email warning at 75% consumption of no-charge quotas in step 7, and changes to step 13 and step 14 regarding the read-only version of the replaced Windows Azure account.
My Windows Azure and SQL Azure Billing System Snafu on 1/4/2010: Epic FAIL! post of 1/4/2010 describes issues prior to correction of the initial upgrade problem.
Following are screen captures that I collected during the process of upgrading the first of the sample Web Role projects from my Cloud Computing with the Windows Azure Platform book:
1A. Click the Billing link at the upper right corner of the Windows Azure Provisioning Page or SQL Azure Project Viewer page:
1B. Or go directly to to the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal (MOCP) and click Continue to open the Getting Started page:
2. Sign in with your Windows Live ID, then click the Services tab and click the Windows Azure Platform link, which became visible late in the afternoon or early evening of 1/4/2010:
3. Click any Rate Plan link to open a Pricing Info page:
If you don’t qualify for a Partner Network discount or MSDN Premium special offer, click the Buy button for one of the three paid accounts and skip to step 6. (The Windows Azure Platform Introductory Special offers very limited compute and small storage quotas at no charge.)
4. Click the Special Offers for MSDN Windows Azure Platform Benefits link to open the Windows Azure Platform Benefits for MSDN Subscribers page:
5. Click the My Account link to open the My Account page:
6. Click the Windows Azure Platform link to open the MOCP Subscription page with the Windows Azure Platform MSDN Premium subscription added:
7. Mark the checkbox to acknowledge that you will be billed for usage over the allotment.
Update 1/6/2010: According to tbtechnet in this Windows Azure Offers Made Easy: Develop and Test on Windows Azure at No Charge post of 1/5/2010 to the Windows Azure Platform, Web Hosting and Web Services blog:
- Please note, you will be notified at your Windows Live ID email when you reach 75% of your no charge capacity.
I will update this post when I confirm arrival of the message (expected about 1/25/2010.)
8. Click Checkout, provide your credit card data, if requested, and complete the transaction to open the Review and Confirm Order page:
9. Click Confirm Order to open the Things I Need To Do page, and select Activate Now in the list:
10. Click Go to activate the subscription, and add the new Subscription Name, which will become the Service Name, to display the Service Activation Summary page:
11. Click Finish to complete the activation process.
12. You will receive a confirmation message similar to the following:
13. Open the default Azure Development Portal page. If you didn’t use the original project name during activation, both the new and old projects appear in the list:
Update 1/6/2010: You can’t delete the read-only, replaced CTP project from the list. This has been reported as a bug, How to Remove Old, Read-Only Windows Azure CTP Account After Upgrade to the Commercial Service? in the Windows Azure forum.
Update 1/7/2010: According to an email of 1/7/2010 from the Windows Azure Platform Team (azinvite@microsoft.com):
If you have two Windows Azure projects associated with your Windows Azure CTP account, only the project with the name of "PDC08 CTP" will migrate to your paid subscription. Your other project will not transfer. If you have such an account, you will have until February 1, 2010, to retrieve your data from this second project prior to the project being disabled.
14. Click the new project link to verify that the deployed project(s) and storage account(s) appear in the new project page:
The original, read-only project disappears from the list when you return to the project list page.
Update 1/6/2010: The read-only, replaced CTP project reappears when you open a new connection to the development blog. This has been reported as a bug.
15. Click the SQL Azure link to display the upgraded SQL Azure project:
16. Click the new Project Name to verify that it contains the same databases as the original project.
Here’s the live, upgraded OakLeaf Systems Azure Table Services Sample Project from my Cloud Computing with the Windows Azure Platform book:
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