What can we do about SSRS and SSIS in an Azure VM?

  • We have a third-party product which uses SQL Server 2016. It also uses both SSRS and SSIS. The network group wants to migrate the test version of this database into an Azure VM - basically a lift and shift approach. We asked the vendor of the application for their input as to the viability of this approach.

    Today we heard from them. I trust the person who's the head of the vendor. She knows her stuff. She had this to say:

    We had to do some research as we use a lot of items in SQL Server that may not be supported by Azure.

    After researching, both SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) are used by [our product]. It seems these can be difficult to get up and running in Azure and can be very costly. Most places state to continue to host these locally.

    [Our product] does not currently support Azure, so, I am unsure what else will fail. We have not tried to run it. As far as putting in new releases, it looks like this could be very complicated. As there are many SQL statements that we use to define the database that are not supported by Azure.

    Therefore, it is my suggestion that this option does not happen as I cannot guarantee that any of the system would work.

    Given what the vendor said, how would we handle SSRS and SSIS, if we were still determined to do a lift and shift of the database into an Azure VM?

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • they didn't understand the question or the question was badly put.

     

    a Azure VM is like any other VM on prem - it allows everything you use on prem. so a lift and shift is possible. Only licensing may be different (and more expensive) as on prem you can license the physical host and on Azure you can only license the VM.

    their reply was about using Azure database - which is not what you mentioned your intention was as per your post. This indeed has issues and SSRS/SSIS do not work (or do not work the same way)

  • Having just gone through a "lift-and-shift" migration to Azure VMs with several SQL installs that use SSIS and an application that uses SSRS, I can conclusively say that, yes, if you're going to Azure VMs, SSIS and SSRS will happily chug along.

    fredico_fonseca is correct in that an Azure VM is a VMWare VM is a Hyper-V VM, it'll behave very much like a physical server.

  • Frederico and Jasona,

    Thank you for your replies. I don't believe the misunderstanding was on the part of the vendor; it was on the part of the manager in my organization. The manager said that we were considering "migrating to Azure". The manager didn't make it clear that it was a VM in Azure, so the natural conclusion was Azure SQL Database. At least as a possibility. That issue has been resolved and now it looks like we'll migrate the test database to a VM in Azure.

    I'd like to ask a follow-up question. Suppose we had been thinking about going to Azure SQL Database; then how would we handle SSRS and SSIS? There must be alternatives for both of those, if one takes the Azure SQL approach.

    • This reply was modified 2 years ago by  Rod at work.
    • This reply was modified 2 years ago by  Rod at work. Reason: corrected for clarity

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • SSRS in Azure Sql - not possible - Microsoft want the clients to migrate SSRS to their PowerBI Premium platform. Cheaper to just get a VM for SSRS for this purpose.

    SSIS - possible through Azure Data Factory

  • frederico_fonseca wrote:

    SSRS in Azure Sql - not possible - Microsoft want the clients to migrate SSRS to their PowerBI Premium platform. Cheaper to just get a VM for SSRS for this purpose.

    SSIS - possible through Azure Data Factory

    Thank you, Frederico.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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