3. Configuring the Firewall
SQL Azure implements a
firewall on your behalf. That's a benefit that helps protect your
database. Indeed, the default firewall rule is that no one
can connect. Allowing no connections by default is a good security
practice, because it forces you to think through what IP addresses you
wish to allow in.
Following these steps to add an IP address (or IP range) for a computer that needs access to the SQL Azure server:
On
the Server Administration screen, click the Firewall Settings tab. This
tab shows the firewall rules that are currently defined (see Figure 4).
Click
Add Rule. Specify a name for this rule, and enter your IP address on
the first line of the IP Range. Specify the same IP in the to field to limit access to a single IP (see Figure 5).
If for some reason the firewall rules aren't correctly configured, you see an error message saying so. Figure 6
shows the error message you get using SQL Server Management Studio if
the firewall rules don't allow you to connect. The error message looks
like a login failure, but the description of the error clearly
indicates that the client with the given IP address isn't allowed to
access the server.
NOTE
When you're creating a firewall rule, you may need to wait a few minutes for the rule to take effect.
You can also view and edit
firewall settings directly using T-SQL by connecting to the master
database with the administrator account and using the following objects:
sys.firewall_rules
sp_set_firewall_rule
sp_delete_firewall_rule
Now that you've configured your SQL Azure database, the fun can begin!
