I remember when I wrote a blog post in 2014 about how you can set up the Adventure Works Sample Database on an Sql Server hosted in Azure in under 10 minutes:

http://manuelmeyer.net/2014/07/azureadventures-setting-up-the-adventureworks-database-in-under-10-minutes/

Well, today we can beat this time.

In the meantime, the Adventure Works db has been integrated into the db setup in the Azure Portal. This allows us to create the whole shabang in under 2 (!) 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, select a ressource group.

Then comes the important part. In the dropdown “Select source”, take “Sample (AdventureWorksLT)” instead of “blank”.

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

4. Hit Create!

And thats it!

Now you have an Sql Server in Azure that contains the entire Adventureworks database.

It can 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 db server in the Azure Portal. Check out this description:

http://www.manuelmeyer.net/2017/04/azure-powertip-4-unable-to-connect-to-azure-sql-database-ip-address-is-not-allowed-to-access-server/