OakLeaf Systems: The SQL Azure Team Unveils a New Server Management UI

Friday, December 09, 2011

The SQL Azure Team Unveils a New Server Management UI

Updated 12/9/2011 at 4:30 PM PST for Silverlight 5 release to web (RTW).
Updated 12/9/2011 at 8:30 AM PST with added steps 17 through 23.

The SQL Azure team has updated the Server Management features of Windows Azure Management Portal’s Database component on 12/8/2011. To view the new pages:

1. Open the Windows Azure Management portal at https://windows.azure.com.

2. Click the Databases button in the navigation pane and select a subscription to activate the Server group (click images for larger view):

Updating from Silverlight 4 to Silverlight 5 Developer Edition

Update 12/9/2011: Cheryl Simmons announced Silverlight 5 has released! The docs are up and a .chm is available in a 12/9/2011 post to the Silverlight SDK blog:

Silverlight 5 has released! Here's the link to download the Silverlight 5 tools.

Silverlight 5 offers many new features including:

PivotViewer control

Trusted applications in-browser

3D graphics

Vector printing

Improved text rendering including the RichTextBlock control.

Hardware decode of H.264 media

For a detailed list of the new features see the Silverlight content on MSDN, specifically, the What's New for Silverlight 5 topic.

If you prefer your docs offline, here's the link to download the .chm containing Silverlight 5 docs.

If you haven’t installed Silverlight 5, your results might differ slightly from the steps below.

3. Click Manage in the Server group to open the Microsoft Silverlight Update dialog. (If you already have Silverlight 5 Developer Edition and tools installed, skip to step 10.

The Silverlight 5 Developer Edition runtime (Silverlight_Developer.exe) is required to use the new features.

4. Click the Install Now button to Download the Silverlight 5 release candidate with the Silverlight 5 SDK installer and open your Downloads folder:

5. Click Run to start the installation process which displays the following dialog:

6. Click Install Now to finally install Silverlight 5 for Developers:

7. Click Close to dismiss the dialog and close the View Downloads window and return to the window behind step 3’s dialog, which displays this graphic:

8. Click the Install graphic to opens another version of the Microsoft Silverlight Update dialog:

9. Click the OK button to dismiss the dialog. Close and restart your browser and repeat steps 1 and 2.

Exploring the new SQL Azure Server Manager UI

10. Click Manage in the Server group to open the login page for the SQL Server instance for the subscription you selected in step 2. Type your Administrative user name and password:

11. Click Log On to ~~peel~~ roll open the new Metro-style Overview page for what formerly was known as the “Database Manager” and “Project ‘Houston’”:

The objective of the new UI is to simplify navigation between administrative and database design tasks and to permit multiple tasks to be performed simultaneously (or nearly simultaneously.)

12. Click the Databases or Design Database tile to open the Databases window:

13. Click the Lists icon to display lists instead of tiles :

14. Click the Summary button to display a Query Usage graph and Database Properties table (updated 12/9/2011 with that day’s minimal query usage):

15. Return to the Databases page and click the Design button to display a list of tables and their properties. Select a table:

16. Click the Edit button to display details of its columns:

Notice that the [SalesLT].[Customer] table is added under the My Work node in the navigation pane. It appears that the new UI covers all functions of the Database Manager with a Metro flourish. Fortunately, you can turn off Metro tiles in favor of conventional lists.

Executing T-SQL Queries and Examining Query Plans

Update 12/9/2011: Added the following additional steps:

17. Click the New Query button to open a text box in which you type T-SQL queries. T-SQL keywords are highlighted in blue:

18. Click the Run button to display the query resultset:

19. Click the Actual Plan button to re-execute the query and click the Query Plan link to open the Graph view of the query plan:

20. Clicking the Grid button opens this Query Plan view:

21. Clicking the Tree button displays a tree view of the Query Plan:

22. Click the SaveAs button to save the T-SQL query in your local Documents folder by default.

23. Click the Open button to display all *.sql files in your Documents folder.

The upgrade process appears to be a bit cumbersome in this initial version, with 7 steps required to upgrade from Silverlight 4. Otherwise, the SQL Azure team has made a substantial improvement in the usability of Server Manager features.