Quickstart: Create a single database in Azure SQL Database using an ARM template

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Applies to: Azure SQL Database

Creating a single database is the quickest and simplest option for creating a database in Azure SQL Database. This quickstart shows you how to create a single database using an Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template).

An ARM template is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file that defines the infrastructure and configuration for your project. The template uses declarative syntax. In declarative syntax, you describe your intended deployment without writing the sequence of programming commands to create the deployment.

If your environment meets the prerequisites and you're familiar with using ARM templates, select the Deploy to Azure button. The template will open in the Azure portal.

Deploy to Azure

Prerequisites

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account.

Permissions

To create databases via Transact-SQL: CREATE DATABASE permissions are necessary. To create a database a login must be either the server admin login (created when the Azure SQL Database logical server was provisioned), the Microsoft Entra admin of the server, a member of the dbmanager database role in master. For more information, see CREATE DATABASE.

To create databases via the Azure portal, PowerShell, Azure CLI, or REST API: Azure RBAC permissions are needed, specifically the Contributor, SQL DB Contributor, or SQL Server Contributor Azure RBAC role. For more information, see Azure RBAC built-in roles.

Review the template

A single database has a defined set of compute, memory, IO, and storage resources using one of two purchasing models. When you create a single database, you also define a server to manage it and place it within Azure resource group in a specified region.

The template used in this quickstart is from Azure Quickstart Templates.

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "metadata": {
    "_generator": {
      "name": "bicep",
      "version": "0.12.40.16777",
      "templateHash": "16856611863128783179"
    }
  },
  "parameters": {
    "serverName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[uniqueString('sql', resourceGroup().id)]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The name of the SQL logical server."
      }
    },
    "sqlDBName": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "SampleDB",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The name of the SQL Database."
      }
    },
    "location": {
      "type": "string",
      "defaultValue": "[resourceGroup().location]",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Location for all resources."
      }
    },
    "administratorLogin": {
      "type": "string",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The administrator username of the SQL logical server."
      }
    },
    "administratorLoginPassword": {
      "type": "secureString",
      "metadata": {
        "description": "The administrator password of the SQL logical server."
      }
    }
  },
  "resources": [
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Sql/servers",
      "apiVersion": "2022-05-01-preview",
      "name": "[parameters('serverName')]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "properties": {
        "administratorLogin": "[parameters('administratorLogin')]",
        "administratorLoginPassword": "[parameters('administratorLoginPassword')]"
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases",
      "apiVersion": "2022-05-01-preview",
      "name": "[format('{0}/{1}', parameters('serverName'), parameters('sqlDBName'))]",
      "location": "[parameters('location')]",
      "sku": {
        "name": "Standard",
        "tier": "Standard"
      },
      "dependsOn": [
        "[resourceId('Microsoft.Sql/servers', parameters('serverName'))]"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

These resources are defined in the template:

More Azure SQL Database template samples can be found in Azure Quickstart Templates.

Deploy the template

Select Try it from the following PowerShell code block to open Azure Cloud Shell.

$projectName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter a project name that is used for generating resource names"
$location = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter an Azure location (i.e. centralus)"
$adminUser = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the SQL server administrator username"
$adminPassword = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the SQL Server administrator password" -AsSecureString

$resourceGroupName = "${projectName}rg"

New-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName -Location $location
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -TemplateUri "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/master/quickstarts/microsoft.sql/sql-database/azuredeploy.json" -administratorLogin $adminUser -administratorLoginPassword $adminPassword

Read-Host -Prompt "Press [ENTER] to continue ..."

Validate the deployment

To query the database, see Query the database.

Clean up resources

Keep this resource group, server, and single database if you want. You can now connect and query your database using different methods.

  1. Create a server-level firewall rule to connect to the single database from on-premises or remote tools. For more information, see Create a server-level firewall rule.
  2. After you create a server-level firewall rule, connect and query your database using several different tools and languages:

If you want to delete the resource group:

$resourceGroupName = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter the Resource Group name"
Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroupName

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