Sql Azure database connection from DNN site

Question

I have a dnn website that I'm testing a move to Azure Websites. What I wanted to do was first recreate the database on Azure and then just change the connection string to point to the azure sql database. I migrated the database just fine. It exists in my azure portal and as far as I can tell the data is accurate.

My previous connection string was:

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source={SERVERNAME};Initial Catalog={DBNAME};User ID={USERNAME};Password={PASSWORD}" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Which I changed to the azure connection as follows:

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Data Source=tcp:{SERVERNAME}.database.windows.net,1433;Database={DBNAME};User ID={USERNAME};Password={PASSWORD};Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;Connection Timeout=30;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

But I get The following error when I try to load the site:

and the url that is hsown in the browser is: mysite.com/Install/UnderConstruction.htm

I am not sure how to trouble shoot this. Is the database not connecting or is the connection good and another problem is happening. I have not changed any files in the root of my stie. I just changed the connection string to point to the new azure database.

I can connect to this database successfully from Sql Management Studio using the connection credentials fro the connection string.

QUESTION:

How can I tell if this is a database connection issue or trouble shoot why this error appears.

Alternatively, do I need to enable a firewall access for the external IIS server IP that the site's files are hosted on?

BEGIN EDIT 1:

So I logged into my sql azure database in question and included more metrics in the monitoring page. I could see that there were connections that failed due to being blocked by the firewall, as shown below.

SO I got he IP address of the shared IIS server where my website files reside and added a firewall rule to allow that IP address. THis did not solve the problem.

Follow up Question: is there a way to tell what the ip address is of the failed connection that was blocked by the firewall?

END EDIT 1:

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

So, the problem was a firewall setting in the Sql Azure Server.

The hosted web app that is requesting a connection to the Sql Azure database is not from another azure service but a separate IIS server. When I do a DMS/IP lookup for the web app I got a certain IP address. I added that to the firewall rules and it did not work so it must use another ip address.

What I Did: I opened all the IP address to make sure that any IP could get through, this allowed the web app to connect to the Sql Azure DB. Here is how i enabled all IP's:

I used http://centralops.net/co/ to get the "net IP range" for the shared server where the web app resides and entered that as an allowed IP range. Now the site connects properly.

Answer 2

You can tell if it is a DB connection issue by going to

/install/install.aspx

That page will tell you if the connection string fails.