Set Up a SQL Server With the AdventureWorks Sample Database in 2 Minutes

I remember when I wrote a blog post in 2014 about how you can set up the AdventureWorks Sample Database on a SQL Server hosted in Azure in under 10 minutes.

Well, today, we can beat this time.

In the meantime, the AdventureWorks database has been integrated into the database setup in the Azure Portal. This allows us to create the whole shabang in under two (!) minutes — but only if you know what you are doing and if you are a reasonably fast typer...

Follow these 4 steps.

1.  Navigate to the Azure Portal and click the New button. Then, search for SQL Database.

2. On the next screen, click Create.

3. Fill in the details — specify a database name, select a subscription, and select a resource group.

Then comes the important part. In the drop-down Select source, take Sample (AdventureWorksLT) instead of blank.

Select or create a database server and adjust your pricing tier.

4. Hit Create!

And that's it!

Now, you have a SQL Server in Azure that contains the entire AdventureWorks database.

It could not get any easier than this! Azure is amazing!

Note that in order to connect from a client such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Visual Studio, you need to allow connections from your IP on the Firewall blade from your database server in the Azure Portal. Check out this description.