SQL Server as IaaS

Running SQL Server as IaaS requires creating an Azure Virtual Machine that will host our SQL Server. We can either create a clean VM with an OS image and install SQL Server ourselves, or we can create a VM with SQL Server already included. Managing databases in both cases is not much different from managing databases in an on-premises environment. You have the full version of SQL with all options you would have in the on-premises version.

Let's begin with creating a VM for our SQL Server and explain everything.

Creating an Azure Virtual Machine with a SQL image

As mentioned, you can either create a VM and install SQL Server later, or you can choose an image that already has SQL Server included. In this...