Publishing to Azure DB from Sql Server DB project with no initial Azure DB

Question

It seems to me that the natural order of development for creating and publishing a Azure DB would be to first create a Sql Server DB project in VS 2013, then publish it to Azure. If no DB exists in Azure then Azure should create it! But I can't seem to get
that to work, I can however create a DB in Azure first, then create a Sql server DB project from it in VS SQL Server Object Explorer where VS imports everything from Azure into my solution. The question is - can I create a SQL Server Database Project in VS
2013 and then publish it to Azure without having any DB in Azure first? If so, is there a tutorial out there somewhere?
dawit

Answer 1

Hi witdaj,
The natural order of development is indeed correct, considering you're a developer. For an DBA, the same could apply for SQL Server Management Studio, where you can deploy any database directly to Azure.
In regard to your question, you absolutely need a SQL Database server first. If you've got yourself a SQL Database server, simply right-click the database project and select 'Publish...'. For the connection, click the edit button and insert your SQL Connection
connection string, in the form of <database_server>.database.windows.net,1433. Make sure you've configured your IP address in the server firewall as an allowed client IP. Also, make sure that in the Edit Connection dialog box you select the master database.
In the Publish window, choose your database name (it shouldn't already exist) and you're all set.
The script that generated your database will create a Web database, which you can scale later either in the portal or directly from the master database.
ALTER DATABASE 'db_name' MODIFY (EDITION = 'Business')
Hope this helps.
Alex