Successful Experiment to Run Sage 500 database from Windows Azure Virtual Machine

After learning about Virtual Machines (VM) on Microsoft Azure and how they can be configured to be recognized by your network, I did a quick experiment to see if I could install Sage 500 on a Azure VM running SQL Server 2012.  I didn't opt for using an Azure SQL Database as there is code within the 500 database that isn't allowed on Azure SQL.  Also, the VM has full SQL capabilities such as SSIS which is needed by Data Migrator.

Using Microsoft's instructions for creating and configuring this type of VM, I had it up and running within a half hour and was able to log into the VM's SQL Server from my local installation of SQL Server Management Studio.

I next tried to run the DB utilities to create a new database on Azure from my local client.  However, this failed because I couldn't install the registration DLL onto the VM.  To work around the problem, I simply installed the DB Utilities onto the VM in order to create the database. 

Once the database was installed and running on the Azure VM, it was a simple matter of using my locally installed client to connect to it and get it properly registered.  I didn't notice any issues using the DNS name provided by Azure to set up the connection.

Since this was an experiment, this configuration hasn't been tested by Sage, so it is probably not supported.  However, since it appears it can be done, I would recommend Sage do their own internal testing as this gives another option for customers on how to set up their Sage 500 environments as well as take advantage of some of the cloud capabilities Microsoft Azure has to offer.

  • Good information.  Thanks, Lou!

  • in reply to Ralph.

    Very cool that you did this Lou. We also did this a few years ago (I say "we" - it was Wei :)). There were certainly db limitations, including the inability to get to system/server wide assets, as you allude to.

    There are other issues, like office licensing, doc transmittal, etc. etc.

    We do not support it.

  • in reply to dbcoles

    I'm a bit confused.  If only the database is on a Azure VM which is configured to be recognized by the local network, how does this impact Office licensing and document transmittal which are run from the client?  In my experiment the client remained local and was not placed on Azure.  It simply connected to the database running on the Azure VM.

    I believe in this configuration document transmittal would still work as it is the client using CDO that creates the email and not the database.  I also believe Office licensing is not maintained by the database itself, so where it resides should not have a bearing on that.

  • in reply to LouDavis

    You are correct - I misunderstood the configuration. We put the client and db on the machine. I believe we also tested connecting as you did, but did not test either enough to say we support it.

  • in reply to LouDavis
    Have you experimented with Sage 500 and PaaS rather than IaaS on Azure?
  • Is anyone using Azure Virtual Desktop Windows 10 os for MAS 500 version 2021 client? We installed MAS 500 client on Azure VD but many features such as 'Search' option (for example AP Batch Search) and dropdown actions not available. Search for AP batch causes error 3709 frmBatch. Anyone has any suggestion?