Dev/test/staging environments for Azure SQL

LangGrant Windocks supports Azure SQL dev test staging, integrating database virtualization with Microsoft Azure services and DevOps workflows.

Windocks can build images and deploy containers based on production data from Azure SQL.

Prerequisites

  1. Production databases running in Azure SQL
  2. Windocks installed on a VM which already has SQL Server. See this link for Windocks install details
  3. BACPAC file of the Azure SQL database

1. Start with the BACPAC file

Download the BACPAC file to storage that can be accessed by the machine running Windocks.

2. Build the Windocks image

See the sample in windocks\samples\cloneFromBacpac. Build an image with the dockerfile using the command docker build -t yourimagename path\to\directory\containing\dockerfile. Alternatively, use the web application and select Build.

3. Create containers

You can create dev/test/staging environments with cloned production data using Windocks. These environments (containers) are available on ports on the VM instance. You can specify the ports as well.

Using the Web Application

Use the Windocks web application to create the dev/test/staging environments with cloned production data from the image built above. More details on the web app are here.

Using the REST API

Alternatively, use the REST API with curl to create and start the container with clone as documented here.

For more information, see the official Microsoft Azure documentation.