Database Reference
In-Depth Information
To sign up for an Azure account, you must have a Windows Live ID. Clicking the Buy button
prompts you to sign in with that ID. After you've signed in, creating your account is a four-step process:
1.
Creating Your Profile. This step asks you to enter your contact and business
information and then select the location that will use the Azure service so it
can determine the services available as well as calculate tax.
2.
Billing Information. After the introductory special ends, you begin to be billed
for using Azure services. This step asks you to enter your billing information,
including payment options and payment information.
3.
Service Activation. This step lets you to create a meaningful subscription name
and define a service administrator (the individual who is responsible for
setting up and managing your service). The service administrator is
created/assigned by the account owner (the individual defined in the main
contact profile).
Confirmation. In this step, you provide additional information regarding the
activation of your Azure service.
The Confirmation page tells you that an e-mail has been sent to your Windows Live ID e-mail
address. This e-mail contains a link to the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal, with the following
instructions:
1.
4.
Click the link, and log in with your Windows Live ID.
2.
In the Customer Portal, open the Subscriptions page, and locate your
subscription.
In the Actions list for your subscription, select Activate Now, and then click the
Go button.
At this point, your service is activated and ready to go.
3.
Managing Your Azure Projects
Now you're getting to the meat of Azure. After reading all the information in the last two chapters, and
working through setup and activation in this chapter, the time has come to start getting your hands
dirty. From here on out, it's hands-on.
To access your SQL Azure Portal projects, go to
https://sql.azure.com/
. Your browser displays the
SQL Azure Summary page, which shows all your SQL Azure projects. The page lists each project's name
(which you created during the activation process) and the account and service administrators, as shown
in Figure 3-2.
The projects listed on the Summary page are those you've created or those you've been given access
to via the account administrator. At this point, you can't do much; but you'll fix that in the following
sections as you walk you through administering your SQL Azure server.
