Autoscaling Azure SQL Database

Question

We have an application that uses Azure SQL for the database backend. Under normal load/conditions this database can successfully run on a Premium 1 plan. However, during the early morning hours, we have jobs that run that increase database load. During these few hours, we need to move to a Premium 3 plan. The cost of a Premium 3 is about 8 times more, so obviously, we do not want to pay the costs of running on this plan 24/7.

Is it possible to autoscale the database up and down? Cloud services offer an easy way to scale the number of instances in the Azure Portal, however, nothing like this exists for Azure SQL databases. Can this be done programmatically with the Azure SDK? I have been unable to locate any documentation on this subject.

Answer 1

To downgrade a database, the database should be smaller than the maximum allowed size of the target service tier. 

For more information, refer to this documentation.