Webmatrix fails to publish SQL Server database to Azure

Question

I've set up a free Azure account to test whether it's suitable for hosting a personal website of mine. I have the site running locally through Webmatrix - it's .NET with a SQL Server 2008 Express database.

I've set up a 'Website' in the Azure portal and have also created a database for the website. I've downloaded the publish profile for this site and loaded it into Webmatrix. I eventually managed to publish all of the site files to Azure, which worked, but I'm now trying to publish the database.

However, every time I try, I just does not work. It seems to connect initially (although it's very slow) but eventually just starts giving logs like this (changed slightly for security):

11/11/2012 18:59
19:00:24: Using ID 'f3c9890f-dc4c-49e7-ad3d-b54e41c0x34d' for connections to the remote server.
19:00:55: Adding ACL's for path (my-site/App_Data)
19:01:49: Using ID '80039cec-bb4c-4e8f-c429-9f32922249f7' for connections to the remote server.
19:02:25: Adding ACL's for path (my-site/App_Data)
19:03:25: Adding database (MSDeploy.Continous/dbFullSql[@path='data source=tcp:p8my6ar10o.database.windows.net,1433;initial catalog=my-site_db;user id=mysite@p8my6ar10o']/sqlScript)
19:03:25: Opening SQL Connection with connection string 'data source=tcp:p8my6ar10o.database.windows.net,1433;initial catalog=my-site_db;user id=mysite@p8my6ar10o;pooling=False'. The 'transacted' setting for this connection is 'True'.
19:08:10: Retrying the sync because a socket error (10054) occurred.  
19:08:10: Retrying operation 'Serialization' on object MSDeploy.Continous (sourcePath). Attempt 1 of 25.
19:08:10: Using ID '83398aba-3463-4e67-bd72-ef26db54ffa5' for connections to the remote server.
19:08:52: Adding ACL's for path (my-site/App_Data)
19:09:22: Adding database (MSDeploy.Continous/dbFullSql[@path='data source=tcp:p8my6ar10o.database.windows.net,1433;initial catalog=my-site_db;user id=mysite@p8my6ar10o']/sqlScript)
19:09:22: Opening SQL Connection with connection string 'data source=tcp:p8my6ar10o.database.windows.net,1433;initial catalog=my-site_db;user id=mysite@p8my6ar10o;pooling=False'. The 'transacted' setting for this connection is 'True'.

The database is heavily indexed (lots of keys etc) which break if I try to do a standard 'script database' from Management Studio to migrate it that way, so that's not an option. Regardless, since Webmatrix should be able to do this, I want to try to get it to work via Webmatrix publish.

Does anyone know how to resolve this or what might be wrong?

Thanks folks...

Answer 1

SQL DB in Azure (PaaS) has a number of limitations from SQL Server on-premises or in IaaS. I also suggest you run your DB via the SQL Database Migration Wizard to check if you have any unsupported items in your DB

Please also check that you have added the necessary firewall settings on your DB to allow remote connections to it. Azure Portal (manage.azure.com) -> SQL Databases -> Manage allowed IP addresses...

I personally haven't tested a SQL DB connection from WebMatrix...