Welcome to Rants and Raves!
I kept hearing that I needed to write, so here is the blog that I ended up starting.
It is mostly an accounting of my progression through creating a web site, nuances with code, and tips about what I did to make things work.
In there you will find sprinkled about some gems of life, and letting loose fun.
Enjoy!
Confirmation
2022-08-07
Azure has been consistantly charging both of my test setups at $0.26 for the last week. I am faily confident that is the set amount for the Flexible DB. I don't think the DB size or amount transfered would add to that cost. Not for the size I am interested in. Still, time to play with SQL in App.
Flexible Server Update Correction
2022-08-04
Alright, looks like I might have been wrong/Azure updates and predicts weird. What was supposed to be $0.16 is now $0.23. So it seems like the flexible server might actually be around a quarter a day. Not terrible, comes out to about $7.50 a month. However, I feel that that is a discourging amount if I'm going to try to utilize Azure to serve groups that don't have a lot of money. Next up will be SQL in App, the challenge being DB administration vs automation.
Flexible Server Update
2022-08-03
Looks like the cost for a flexible DB server is indeed about 1/4 the cost of the stand alone DB server. Although, they might have some kind of idle reduction as well. Both servers (one with 1000 entries, the other with 11000) were at $0.26, but went down to $0.16. Still need more time idle to test that theory.
And 1 More Step Forward
2022-07-30
So, it seems that the flexible server can run public. For me that means that the web app can connect to the DB, and my admin machine can connect to the DB. This way I can make modify and make backups of the DB from my machine. Now to see what the cost factor is with some data in it
Database Seeding
2022-07-30
Part of the testing needs to include having/putting/accessing data on the DB. To start with we need to create data, and that is easy when we can connect to the DB from the admin PC and utilize Laravel's seeding feature. The basic command is "php artisan db:seed" which can be found at https://laravel.com/docs/9.x/seeding. You will probably need to tweak for your purposes.
CLI WORKED!
2022-07-29
HOLY FUCKING SHIT! My script created a flexible server! I think the only real difference was running PS ISE as administrator. Anyway, it worked and now I can work on linking the app and DB together.
Commands That Prompt For Input
2022-07-29
Be wary of using commands in a PS script that require user input. For example "az webapp connection create mysql" requires the "--secret name=xx secret=xx" parameter if automating it through script. Similarly, deleting a connection would prompt for confirmation if the "--yes -y" is not included. Without these the script hangs, because it doesn't actually promt.
2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back
2022-07-29
Well, guess I can't use flexible DB on private vnet because the web app is not allowed on the vnet for the free version. So now we are back to Azure wanting more money for what I want to do than I want to pay. Maybe if the flexible DB is public instead of private I might be able to connect. Otherwise there is still the In App DB to play with...
Finally Got Some Flexible Info
2022-07-28
Fisrt off, ended up creating a flexible database through the portal, CLI wasn't finishing. Second, the required DNS zone does cost a couple of cents a day. Third, it seems that the flexible server did cost a few cents to at least setup. Haven't quite had it long enough to verify general daily costs. It's still potentaially be more than I was hoping, but potentially enough to be viable for the most part. Never mind the restrictions on accessing the database from my admin machine.
More Flexible Server
2022-07-22
Setting up a flexible server is a bit more complex than a stand alone server. It involves having Vnets for connection to the App. And every little layer has enough nuance that it is a bit of a pain to get to the next step. Like needing a private DNS Zone.