Right after you install Azure Tools for Visual Studio, if you try to start the Development Storage service, a command prompt window pops up, then shows a error message in red, then closes so fast you can't even start to read the error message. I've tried to start the Development Storage from a command prompt to see what was the error. But the .lnk file to Dev Storage does not show what is the command to start it.
Tip 1: To start Azure Development Storage from a command prompt, open an Azure Command Prompt (Start > All Programs > Windows Azure SDK > Windows Azure SDK Command Prompt), and then run csrun /devstore.
Ok. Then I could see the error message:
Encountered an unexpected error from the devstore: Unable to start Development Storage.
Error Details: Failed to start Development Storage: the SQL Server instance 'localhost\SQLExpress' could not be found. Please configure the SQL Server instance for Development Storage using the 'DSInit' utility in the Windows Azure SDK.
Nothing like being able to read the error message when you're trying to fix some error. That leads to
Tip 2: After you install Azure Tools for Visual Studio, run dsinit /sqlinstance:sql_instance_name to create the database needed to run Development Storage.
Since I already have a non-named default SQL Server instance, I ran
dsinit /sqlinstance:. (dsinit /sqlinstance "colon" "dot"), as "dot" is the name for a default SQL Server instance. Then Dev Storage started up ok.
