Deploying Sitecore CMS to Windows Azure using VM Role

Sitecore CMS can be deployed to Microsoft Azure using Sitecore CMS Azure Edition, but as a proof of concept I gave it a try to upload it using Virtual Machine (VM) Role.

Using exactly same procedure as with EPiServer you can deploy Sitecore CMS. Only change required was updating aspnet_Membership_GetNumberOfUsersOnline procedure as in original it's not compatible with Azure SQL. So after database migration additional query with code placed below is required:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[aspnet_Membership_GetNumberOfUsersOnline]') AND type in (N'P', N'PC'))
BEGIN
EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @statement = N'CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.aspnet_Membership_GetNumberOfUsersOnline
    @ApplicationName            nvarchar(256),
    @MinutesSinceLastInActive   int,
    @CurrentTimeUtc             datetime
AS
BEGIN
    DECLARE @DateActive datetime
    SELECT  @DateActive = DATEADD(minute,  -(@MinutesSinceLastInActive), @CurrentTimeUtc)

    DECLARE @NumOnline int
    SELECT  @NumOnline = COUNT(*)
    FROM    dbo.aspnet_Users u WITH (NOLOCK),
            dbo.aspnet_Applications a WITH (NOLOCK),
            dbo.aspnet_Membership m WITH (NOLOCK)
    WHERE   u.ApplicationId = a.ApplicationId                  AND
            LastActivityDate > @DateActive                     AND
            a.LoweredApplicationName = LOWER(@ApplicationName) AND
            u.UserId = m.UserId
    RETURN(@NumOnline)
END' 
END