Recently, I found a great website that providing bunch of useful information about Windows Azure, especially in Benchmarking and Best Practice Guidance. Azurescope was developed by Research Engagements team in the eXtreme Computing Group of Microsoft Research as a resource for developers and application architects.

http://azurescope.cloudapp.net/

Best Practices

Azurescope discusses various best practice implementation to achieve best possible result. The best practices include:

• Deployment & Dynamic Scaling
• Design & Planning
• Windows Azure Storage
• SQL Azure
• Network Communication
• Testing & Development

Benchmark Test Cases

The benchmark contains 3 major categories test cases. Each test case describe clearly the scenario, key analysis, result that is showing on charts, how the benchmark works.

MicroBenchmark

Windows Azure Blob

• Blob Read Throughput
• Blob Write Throughput 
• Blob Read Latency 
• Blob Write Latency

Windows Azure Queue

• Queue Read Throughput 
• Queue Write Throughput 
• Queue Read Latency 
• Queue Write Latency

Windows Azure Table

• Table Read Throughput 
• Table Write Throughput 
• Table Read Latency 
• Table Write Latency

SQL Azure

• SQL Azure Read Throughput
• SQL Azure Write Throughput
• SQL Azure Read Latency
• SQL Azure Write Latency

Windows Azure Role

• Disk Read Throughput
• TDisk Write Throughput
• Memory Throughput
• CPU Throughput

Windows Azure Fabric

• Network Throughput
• Deployment Cost

Other Benchmarks

• Storage Type Comparison
• VM Size Comparison

End-to-end Application Benchmarks

1. Matrix Multiplication

These tests multiply two block square matrices of same dimensions to determine the suitability of Windows Azure platform for running embarrassingly parallel algorithms. The algorithms here partition the input matrix multiplication problem into smaller block multiplications. We employ b * b workers for running these tests where b is the number of blocks on one dimension of the input matrix.

2. Sorting

These tests sort few gigabytes of unsorted data stored in blob storage. The input unsorted data is split across multiple blobs where each blob contains multiple 100 byte records. Workers download these unsorted blobs, sort them locally and then upload sorted records back to the blob storage. The tests here try to determine whether Windows Azure is suitable for running parallel applications that require large data movements.

3. Sequence Alignment

This test implements a sequence matching algorithm so as to determine whether Windows Azure is suitable for running delightfully parallel algorithms.

Other Benchmarks

1. Storage Type Comparison

Charts on this page compare the maximum throughput achieved for the various storage types irrespective of the VM Size or values of other parameters on which the test was run. Please refer individual test cases for detailed information.

2. VM Size Comparison

Charts on this page compare the maximum throughput achieved for various storage types on various VM sizes irrespective of other test parameters. Please refer individual test cases for detailed information.

Code Samples

Apart from best practice and benchmark, AzureScope also provide a set of comprehensive code sample for each topic / component. Not only apply on .NET languages, the code sample also includes other languages such as PHP, Python, or Java.

General Windows Azure Code Sample

• Blob Upload and Download
• File Upload using BlobStream
• Parallel Blob Upload and Download
• CRUD Operation on Windows Azure Table
• Queue Message Add, Get and Delete
• Mounting and Unmounting Windows Azure Drive
• Use of retry policy provided by StorageClient to access Windows Azure storage
• Custom retry logic to access Windows Azure storage

Other Languages Code Samples

• Windows Azure IronPython Code Samples
• Windows Azure Java Code Samples
• Windows Azure PHP Code Samples

Hope this helps!

If you want to see how much size has you used in your SQL Azure database, you can definitely see it on the SQL Azure Developer Portal as shown below.

However, for some reason, sometimes you would either need to get the size more precisely or retrieve the numbers programmatically.

Calculating Database Size

Here’s the query for you to retrieve the size of your database.

select 

      sum(reserved_page_count) * 8.0 / 1024 as ''Database Size''

from 

      sys.dm_db_partition_stats 

After running in on my SQL Server Management Studio R2, here’s the result:

Calculating Each Table in the Database

If you need to explore in more detail how much size for each table, you can also use the following query to see.

select 

      sys.objects.name as ''TableName'', sum(reserved_page_count) * 8.0 / 1024 as ''Size (in MB)''

from 

      sys.dm_db_partition_stats, sys.objects 

where 

      sys.dm_db_partition_stats.object_id = sys.objects.object_id

group by sys.objects.name

References

You may want to learn more about SQL Azure tips and tricks, be sure to check out the following posts:

• MSDN SQL Azure
• SQL Azure team blog
• Cloud Cover Show
• Ryan Dunn’s Blog

Hope this helps.

I’ve been seeing many people ask about where should they go if they want to learn more Windows Azure. Therefore, I try to compile a complete list of Windows Azure Learning Resource.

Windows Azure Platform Page

This is definitely a must-visited page for those who want to get started on Azure. It provides you tons of link to many resources

Frequently Asked Question

This is a list of official FAQ from Microsoft to explain some frequently-asked question and clarify any confusion

Windows Azure Whitepaper

Windows Azure Whitepaper is a good resource for who is looking for the conceptual and deep content with respect to the particular technologies. Although some of them are not written by Microsoft guy, but they are officially reviewed and published in Microsoft site. Thus, we can definitely trust them

Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – Offline version

The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and AppFabric.

Azure Training Kit – Online version at Channel 9

The same content with the above link, however it’s hosted online at Channel 9

Cloud Cover Show

This is indeed my favorite show that are hosted by Steve Marx and Ryan Dunn. Every week, they come up with very interesting talk which I found it very useful. Join Ryan and Steve as they cover the Windows Azure platform, digging into features, discussing the latest news and announcements, and sharing tips and tricks.

MSDev IT Mentors Azure Video

There’re indeed tons of great videos (actually not only Azure),produced by IT Mentor.

Windows Azure Platform Forum

A place for you to ask any related question about Windows Azure Platform. Make sure to ask your question in appropriate forum as categorized below:

• Windows Azure Platform Development
• Windows Azure Platform Troubleshooting,Diagnostics & Logging
• Windows Azure Platform Data Storage & Access
• Managing Services on the Windows Azure Platform
• Security for the Windows Azure Platform
• Windows Azure Platform Purchasing, Pricing & Billing

Azure Support

Work with a Windows Azure platform specialist to help you overcome challenges you might have in the development of your solution.

• Windows Azure
• SQL Azure
• AppFabric

Windows Azure Team Blog

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlazure/
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazureappfabric/
• http://blog.smarx.com/
• http://dunnry.com/blog/
• Jim Nakashima

Windows Azure Boot Camp

Windows Azure Boot Camp is a two day deep dive class to get you up to speed on developing for Windows Azure. The class includes a trainer with deep real world experience with Azure, as well as a series of labs so you can practice what you just learned.

6 weeks of Windows Azure Self-Paced Training

This is a free, interactive, self-paced, technical training course covering the Windows Azure Platform – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Windows Azure Platform AppFabric. The course takes place over a six week period, from May 10th to June 21st 2010 and is aimed primarily at technical folk based in the UK.

Recording Video

• Azure Video at PDC09
• MIX 2010
• MS TechEd

If you find some good resource which are not listed here, feel free to put on the comment below .