When working with the Azure services, the Development Storage is configured to use SQL Express by default (looks for an SQLExpress instance name). If you want to use another instance (e.g. the full SQL Server), do the following:

1. Open the Azure command prompt by navigating to Start->All Programs->Windows Azure SDK (march 2009 preview) and select the Command Prompt shortcut.

2. Type dsinit /sqlInstance:name where name is the SQL instance name (use . for the default instance). This should initialize the storage fabric on this instance. If this fails – just repeat it, it should work.

Happy clouding!

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For all those WinDbg + SOS/SOSEX lovers, a new version of SOSEX was published, which includes some new commands and enhancements to existing ones. Here’s a brief description of each command. More info can be found in the readme file and using !help <command> inside WinDbg.

dlk       (no parameters)                                   Displays sync block deadlocks
dumpgen   <GenNum> [-free] [-stat] [-type <TYPE_NAME>]      Dumps the contents of the specified generation
gcgen     <ObjectAddr>                                      Displays the GC generation of the specified object
mbc       <Managed breakpoint ID | *>                       Clears the specified or all managed breakpoints
mbd       <Managed breakpoint ID | *>                       Disables the specified or all managed breakpoints
mbe       <Managed breakpoint ID | *>                       Enables the specified or all managed breakpoints
mbl       (no parameters)                                   Lists all managed breakpoints
mbm       <strTypeAndMethodFilter> [intILOffset] [Options]  Sets a managed breakpoint on methods matching the specified filter
mbp       <strSourceFile> <nLineNum> [nColumNum> [Options]  Sets a managed breakpoint at the specified source code location
mdt       [strTypeName | strVarName | MT] [ADDR] [-r]       Displays the contents of an object or type, optionally recursively
mdv       [-w]                                              Displays arguments and parameters for managed frames
mframe    [nFrameNum]                                       Displays or sets the current managed frame for the !mdt and !mdv commands
mk        [nFrameCount]                                     Prints a stack trace of managed and unmanaged frames
mln       <address expression>                              Displays the type of managed data located at the specified address, if any
mx        <Filter String>                                   Displays managed type/field/method names matching the specified filter string
refs      <ObjectAddr>                                      Displays all references from and to the specified object
sosexhelp [CommandName]                                     Display this screen or details about the specified command
strings   [Options]                                         Lists all strings on managed heaps that match the specified criteria

Let the debugging begin!

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