How can I Schedule a Sql job in Microsoft Azure SQL database?

Question

I have one SQL Agent maintenance job which checks the index fragmentation within a database and rebuilds indexes if required.

This is running well in my test server (Microsoft Sql Server 2012). But my production server is in Azure. Now I want to schedule that job to Azure.

SQL Agent does not exist in Azure SQL database so how can I schedule a Sql Job in Azure Db?

Answer 1

Since this question was first asked, there is now another alternative to handle this problem:
Azure Functions

Here are a couple of examples that could easily be modified to call a stored procedure that rebuilds your indexes

• Create a function in Azure that is triggered by a timer
• Use Azure Functions to connect to an Azure SQL Database

Also see

• How to maintain Azure SQL Indexes and Statistics - this page has an example stored procedure for rebuilding your indexes that you can download.
• Reorganize and Rebuild Indexes

A few things to keep in mind with Azure functions

• They are built on top of Azure Web Jobs SDK and offer additional functionality
• There are two different pricing models:
  • App Service plan (attach it to an existing plan)
    • Predictable cost model
    • It puts extra load on the same VM used by your web site
  • Consumption plan
    • You get some free processing every month
    • The default maximum run time is 5 minutes to prevent billing problems, but it can be changed via the host.json file.