If you have a database that you are using less during night time, you could change SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) with some schedule to save some money. With Logic apps and the connector Azure Resource Manager it is quite straightforward to do.

Setup schedule

In Azure Portal, create a new Logic app. Select Recurrence as the trigger. Set Frequency to Week, and on Add new parameter select On these days, At these hours and At these minutes. Then configure the schedule you want to use.

In this sample, the app will run every workday at 07:00 in the morning:

Schedule

Add action

In your logic app, select to add a new action and search for Azure Resource Manager. Then select the action Create or update a resource.

Add Azure Resource Manager

When you have done that you are being asked to enter five parameters by default. But to change SKU we need more settings. Select Add new parameter and select:

  • Location
  • Properties
  • SKU Capacity
  • SKU Family
  • SKU Name
  • SKU Tier

Now it should look like this:

Parameters

Some of these settings are common for every SKU, so we start with these first:

Subscription

Select the subscription that contains your SQL Server.

Resource group

Select the resource group where your SQL Server are.

Resource provider

The third parameters should have the value Microsoft.Sql.

Short Resource Id

This should have the value: servers/[short-name-of-you-sql-server]/databases/[name-of-database]. If the name of your SQL-server is yoursqlserver.database.windows.net, just use the name yoursqlserver.

Client Api Version

This should have the value 2017-10-01-preview.

Location

This is in which location you have your database. Just set this to the current value because you cannot change this, but it is required to have this.

Properties

In the properties parameter you could set the maximum size of your database. If you are using the serverless SKU, you could also change some other settings, more about this later. If you do not want to change these setting, you could just skip this option. But if you do, you set it up like this:

JSON 
{
    "maxSizeBytes": 2147483648
}

In this sample the maximum database size will be 2 GB (2 · 1024 · 1024 · 1024 = 2147483648). If you want 500 MB, use the value 500 · 1024 · 1024 = 524288000 instead.

First step completed

When you are done your action should look something like this:

First settings

Setup SKU

Each SKU has its own set of settings.

Basic

The basic SKU is the option with the least power and is very easy to configure. Configure these settings:

SKU Capacity

Capacity should have the value: 5

SKU Name

SKU Name should have the value: Basic

SKU Tier

SKU Tier should have the value: Basic

Sample

When you have setup these settings it should look like this:

SKU Basic

Standard

To configure standard SKU setup these settings:

SKU Capacity

This is the number of DTU:s. These options are valid:

  • 10
  • 20
  • 50
  • 100
  • 200
  • 400
  • 800
  • 1600
  • 3000

SKU Name

SKU Name should have the value: Standard

SKU Tier

SKU Tier should have the value: Standard

Sample

When you have setup these settings it should look like this:

SKU Standard

Premium

To configure premium SKU setup these settings:

SKU Capacity

This is the number of DTU:s. These options are valid:

  • 125
  • 250
  • 500
  • 1000
  • 1750
  • 4000

SKU Name

SKU Name should have the value: Premium

SKU Tier

SKU Tier should have the value: Premium

Sample

When you have setup these settings it should look like this:

SKU Premium

General Purpose - Provisioned

To configure General Purpose - Provisioned SKU setup these settings:

SKU Capacity

This is the number of vCore:s. These options are valid:

  • 2
  • 4
  • 6
  • 8
  • 10
  • 12
  • 14
  • 16
  • 18
  • 20
  • 24
  • 32
  • 40

SKU Family

SKU Family should have the value: Gen5

SKU Name

SKU Name should have the value: GP_Gen5

SKU Tier

SKU Tier should have the value: GeneralPurpose

Sample

When you have setup these settings it should look like this:

SKU Provisioned

General Purpose - Serverless

To configure General Purpose - Serverless SKU setup these settings:

SKU Capacity

This is the maximum number of vCore:s. These options are valid:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
  • 6
  • 8
  • 10
  • 12
  • 14
  • 16
  • 18
  • 20
  • 24
  • 32
  • 40

SKU Family

SKU Family should have the value: Gen5

SKU Name

SKU Name should have the value: GP_S_Gen5

SKU Tier

SKU Tier should have the value: GeneralPurpose

Properties

When you are using serverless, you could configure more settings in the properties parameter. With minCapacity you configure the minimum number of vCores to use. With autoPauseDelay you configure the number of minutes it takes before the database is paused. Set this to -1 if the database never should be paused.

If you skip these settings autoPauseDelay will be set to 60 minutes, and minCapacity will be set to the lowest number available (this depends on SKU Capacity). Here is a sample how this looks like:

JSON 
{
    "maxSizeBytes": 2147483648,
    "autoPauseDelay": 60,
    "minCapacity": 0.5
}

Sample

When you have setup these settings it should look like this:

SKU Serverless

Summary

The settings I have written about, are likely to change. The best way to find out which settings to use, is to configure the database in the Azure Portal. Then use Azure resource explorer to see exactly what have been set.

Also, be aware that all clients might lose the connection to the database while the SKU is changing. So, pick the schedule with care.