Microsoft has clarified the more confusing elements of SQL Server licensing and extended major benefits to customers. The catch is that Software Assurance is required to take advantage of them.

Warnings Information in this article applies to Microsoft SQL Server 2012. The instructions for earlier versions of SQL Server, including versions 2008 and 2005, are similar.

A step-by-step guide to deploying, configuring, and testing a multi-AZ, multi-region SQL Server FCI in the Azure cloud, complete with a PowerShell script that handles the networking configuration.