Replacing the Postgres db with Azure SQL Server?

[BillmanH]

Please provide us with the following information:

This issue is for a: (mark with an x)

- [ ] bug report -> please search issues before submitting
- [ ] feature request
- [X] documentation issue or request
- [ ] regression (a behavior that used to work and stopped in a new release)

I'm looking to connect with the regular Azure SQL Server db instead of the Postgres db, However I'm running into an issue regarding the ODBC connector. In VMs and local I'm able to install the required ODBC connector via the docs that are there which are complete and accurate. Is there a way to deploy the needed tools via the build_and_deploy.yaml template that you have? Or is the ODBC driver simply not available through the app service?

the specificic error is this:

django.db.utils.Error: ('01000', "[01000] [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Can't open lib 'ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server' : file not found (0) (SQLDriverConnect)")

But that's obvious given that the App Service never installed the ODBC driver. My question is: where does that step go and where in the deploy.yaml file would it go?

OS and Version?

ubuntu-latest

I'm basically using a clone of the deployment you have. The full code is here, but the deployment is the same.

Versions

Mention any other details that might be useful

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Thanks! We'll be in touch soon.

[BillmanH]

FWIW, I've generally found that Azure SQL Server is no good for this solution. You shouldn't use it.

I don't fully understand the nuances of the ODBC driver, but my findings are as follows:

• pyodbc requires the odbc driver.

• the odbc driver has a lot of lower level requirements that make it very specific to the os.

• The nature of the web-app infrastructure abstracts those systems, making it difficult to get odbc working correctly.

• PostGres doesn't have any of these requirements.

• While you could Dockerize the solution to work inside of the VM, you'll need a lot of additional setup and maintenance that will make you wonder if it's really worth it.

• PostGres SQL is open source and works perfectly fine. It's tough to make an argument for Azure SQL in this case, unless you were trying to leverage an existing SQL database (like I was). In this case, migrating other resources away from Azure SQL was easier than migrating this solution towards it.

[BillmanH]

Closing as this solution seems fine and stable.