This is the “how-to” post on establishing virtual network connection between cloud instances and on-premise server with Windows Azure Connect. Please check out my last post about how the idea and concept beyond Windows Azure Connect works.

What we are going to do

The objective of this “how-to” post is to demonstrate how we host our web application on Windows Azure, yet we can connect to on-premise services, in this case SQL Server database. Please keep in mind that, the application is not a fancy application, however the main objective is to show how we use Windows Azure Connect.

Preparing SQL Server and Configuring Firewall

1. The first step is to prepare necessary database and tables. In this case, I will be using Northwind sample database (Customer table) that you can download here.

2. Please also ensure that your database engine’s authentication accept SQL Server authentication. From SQL Server Management Studio, right click on your server and select “Properties” and go to “Security Tab”.

3. Next is to allow remote connection to the server. On the same dialog box, go to the Connections page and check the “Allow remote connections to this server” checkbox.

4. Subsequently is to ensure that TCP/IP protocol is enabled so that people would be able to connect our SQL Server database.

5. Having done configuring the SQL Server, next is to configure firewall to allow inbound call from the cloud instance. To do that, Open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

Select Inbound Rules and create a new rule. In the new inbound rule wizard, click on port for rule type. Apply it for TCP and specific port 1433.

Next, select allow connection and apply to all domain,private,and public location. You can then name the rule “SQL Inbound Rule”

On the subsequent post, I’ll prepare an application used to host it on the cloud.

1. How to establishing virtual network connection between cloud and on-premise with Windows Azure Connect (Part 3– Activating and Enabling Windows Azure Connect) | Wely's Cloud Journey... says:

   January 15, 2012 at 9:43 pm

   [...] is the third post of Windows Azure Connect blog post series, please check out the first post on how to set up on-premise server and the second post for preparing the [...]

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2. How to establishing virtual network connection between cloud and on-premise with Windows Azure Connect (Part 2–Preparing the application) | Wely's Cloud Journey... says:

   February 26, 2012 at 1:41 pm

   [...] virtual network connection between cloud and on-premise with Windows Azure. Please check out the first post of preparing on-premise server and firewall, in my case SQL [...]

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