Unlocking AI-Driven Data Access: Azure Database for MySQL Support via the Azure MCP Server
Step into a new era of data-driven intelligence with the fusion of Azure MCP Server and Azure Database for MySQL, where your MySQL data is no longer just stored, but instantly conversational, intelligent and action-ready. By harnessing the open-standard Model Context Protocol (MCP), your AI agents can now query, analyze and automate in natural language, accessing tables, surfacing insights and acting on your MySQL-driven business logic as easily as chatting with a colleague. It’s like giving your data a voice and your applications a brain, all within Azure’s trusted cloud platform. We are excited to announce that we have added support for Azure Database for MySQL in Azure MCP Server. The Azure MCP Server leverages the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to allow AI agents to seamlessly interact with various Azure services to perform context-aware operations such as querying databases and managing cloud resources. Building on this foundation, the Azure MCP Server now offers a set of tools that AI agents and apps can invoke to interact with Azure Database for MySQL - enabling them to list and query databases, retrieve schema details of tables, and access server configurations and parameters. These capabilities are delivered through the same standardized interface used for other Azure services, making it easier to the adopt the MCP standard for leveraging AI to work with your business data and operations across the Azure ecosystem. Before we delve into these new tools and explore how to get started with them, let’s take a moment to refresh our understanding of MCP and the Azure MCP Server - what they are, how they work, and why they matter. MCP architecture and key components The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an emerging open protocol designed to integrate AI models with external data sources and services in a scalable, standardized, and secure manner. MCP dictates a client-server architecture with four key components: MCP Host, MCP Client, MCP Server and external data sources, services and APIs that provide the data context required to enhance AI models. To explain briefly, an MCP Host (AI apps and agents) includes an MCP client component that connects to one or more MCP Servers. These servers are lightweight programs that securely interface with external data sources, services and APIs and exposes them to MCP clients in the form of standardized capabilities called tools, resources and prompts. Learn more: MCP Documentation What is Azure MCP Server? Azure offers a multitude of cloud services that help developers build robust applications and AI solutions to address business needs. The Azure MCP Server aims to expose these powerful services for agentic usage, allowing AI systems to perform operations that are context-aware of your Azure resources and your business data within them, while ensuring adherence to the Model Context Protocol. It supports a wide range of Azure services and tools including Azure AI Search, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Storage, Azure Monitor, Azure CLI and Developer CLI extensions. This means that you can empower AI agents, apps and tools to: Explore your Azure resources, such as listing and retrieving details on your Azure subscriptions, resource groups, services, databases, and tables. Search, query and analyze your data and logs. Execute CLI and Azure Developer CLI commands directly, and more! Learn more: Azure MCP Server GitHub Repository Introducing new Azure MCP Server tools to interact with Azure Database for MySQL The Azure MCP Server now includes the following tools that allow AI agents to interact with Azure Database for MySQL and your valuable business data residing in these servers, in accordance with the MCP standard: Tool Description Example Prompts azmcp_mysql_server_list List all MySQL servers in a subscription & resource group "List MySQL servers in resource group 'prod-rg'." "Show MySQL servers in region 'eastus'." azmcp_mysql_server_config_get Retrieve the configuration of a MySQL server "What is the backup retention period for server 'my-mysql-server'?" "Show storage allocation for server 'my-mysql-server'." azmcp_mysql_server_param_get Retrieve a specific parameter of a MySQL server "Is slow_query_log enabled on server my-mysql-server?" "Get innodb_buffer_pool_size for server my-mysql-server." azmcp_mysql_server_param_set Set a specific parameter of a MySQL server to a specific value "Set max_connections to 500 on server my-mysql-server." "Set wait_timeout to 300 on server my-mysql-server." azmcp_mysql_table_list List all tables in a MySQL database "List tables starting with 'tmp_' in database 'appdb'." "How many tables are in database 'analytics'?" azmcp_mysql_table_schema_get Get the schema of a specific table in a MySQL database "Show indexes for table 'transactions' in database 'billing'." "What is the primary key for table 'users' in database 'auth'?" azmcp_mysql_database_query Executes a SELECT query on a MySQL Database. The query must start with SELECT and cannot contain any destructive SQL operations for security reasons. “How many orders were placed in the last 30 days in the salesdb.orders table?” “Show the number of new users signed up in the last week in appdb.users grouped by day.” These interactions are secured using Microsoft Entra authentication, which enables seamless, identity-based access to Azure Database for MySQL - eliminating the need for password storage and enhancing overall security. How are these new tools in the Azure MCP Server different from the standalone MCP Server for Azure Database for MySQL? We have integrated the key capabilities of the Azure Database for MySQL MCP server into the Azure MCP Server, making it easier to connect your agentic apps not only to Azure Database for MySQL but also to other Azure services through one unified and secure interface! How to get started Installing and running the Azure MCP Server is quick and easy! Use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code to gain meaningful insights from your business data in Azure Database for MySQL. Pre-requisites Install Visual Studio Code. Install GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat extensions. An Azure Database for MySQL with Microsoft Entra authentication enabled. Ensure that the MCP Server is installed on a system with network connectivity and credentials to connect to Azure Database for MySQL. Installation and Testing Please use this guide for installation: Azure MCP Server Installation Guide Try the following prompts with your Azure Database for MySQL: Azure Database for MySQL tools for Azure MCP Server Try it out and share your feedback! Start using Azure MCP Server with the MySQL tools today and let our cloud services become your AI agent’s most powerful ally. We’re counting on your feedback - every comment, suggestion, or bug-report helps us build better tools together. Stay tuned: more features and capabilities are on the horizon! Feel free to comment below or write to us with your feedback and queries at AskAzureDBforMySQL@service.microsoft.com.Step-by-Step: How to Setup Copilot Chat in VS Code
Copilot Chat is an AI-powered chatbot leveraging OpenAI's GPT-4, designed to enhance your coding workflow. Learn how to set up Copilot Chat step by step in Visual Studio Code (VS Code). Benefit from personalized and flexible coding environments, code analysis, automated unit test generation, and bug fixes. Prerequisites include an active GitHub account and the latest version of VS Code. Elevate your coding efficiency to new heights with Copilot Chat.Resolving WinRM errors and Exchange 2010 Management tools startup failures
As was discussed in the previous (related) blog post "Troubleshooting Exchange 2010 Management Tools startup issues", in Exchange 2010 the Management tools are dependent on IIS. As was discussed in that blog, we have seen situations where the management tool connection to the target Exchange server can fail, and the error that is returned can be difficult to troubleshoot. This generally (but not always) happens when Exchange 2010 is installed on an IIS server that is already in service, or when changes are made to the IIS server settings post Exchange Install. We have seen that these changes are usually done when the IIS administrator is attempting to "tighten up" IIS security by editing the Default Web Site or PowerShell vdir settings. The situation is further complicated by the fact that some of the errors presented have similar wording; most seem to originate with WinRM (Windows Remote Management), and in some cases different root problems can produce the exact same error message. In other words, depending on how knowledgeable you are with these errors, troubleshooting them is all around... not much fun. I was approached by a good friend of mine and he asked what I thought we could do to make these errors a little easier to troubleshoot. I was studying PowerShell and PowerShell programming at the time (I just happened to be reading Windows PowerShell for Exchange Server 2007 SP1), and I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to try and apply what I was learning. This is the result. Introducing the Exchange Management Troubleshooter (or EMTshooter for short). What it does: The EMTshooter runs on the local (target) Exchange server and attempts to identify potential problems with management tools connection to it. The troubleshooter runs in 2 stages. First, it will look at the IIS Default Web Site, the PowerShell vdir, and other critical areas, to identify known causes of connection problems. If it identifies a problem with one of the pre-checks it will make a recommendation for resolving the problem. If the pre-checks pass, the troubleshooter will go ahead and try to connect to the server in the exact same way that the management tools would. If that connection attempt still results in a WinRM-style error, the troubleshooter will attempt to compare that error to a list of stored strings that we have taken from the related support cases that we have seen. If a match is found, the troubleshooter will display the known causes of that error in the CMD window. Here is an example of how this might look like: When I was designing the troubleshooter, I could have just written a little error lookup tool that handed over the appropriate content for the error you were getting, but I felt that was not as robust of a solution as I was aiming for (and not much of a learning experience for me). So the tool runs active pre-checks before moving on to the error look-up. The amount of pre-checks it can run depends on the flavor of OS you are running on and the options you have installed on it, such as WMI Compatibility. Basically, I have taken all of the documentation that has been created on these errors to date, and created a tool that will make the information available to you based on the error or problem it detects. Hopefully this will cut down on the amount of time it takes to resolve those problems. Event reporting: When you run the EMTshooter it will log events in the event log. All results that are displayed in the CMD window are also logged in the event log for record keeping. Events are logged to the Microsoft-Exchange-Troubleshooters/Operational event log and are pretty self-explanatory. Things to remember: Depending on your current settings, you may need to adjust the execution policy on your computer to run the troubleshooter, using: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned Or Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Remember to set it back to your normal settings after running the troubleshooter. This version of the troubleshooter needs to run on the Exchange Server that the management tools are failing to connect to. While our final goal is that the troubleshooter will be able to run anywhere the Exchange Management tools are installed, the tool isn't quite there yet. We have seen instances where corruption in the PowerShell vdir or in IIS itself has resulted in errors that seemed to be caused by something else. For instance, we worked on a server that had an error that indicated a problem with the PowerShell vdir network path. But the path was correct. Then we noticed that the PowerShell vdir was missing all its modules, and quite a few other things. Somehow the PowerShell vdir on that Exchange Server had gotten severely... um... modified beyond repair. WinRM was returning the best error it could, and the troubleshooter took that error and listed the causes. None of which solved the problem. So be aware that there are scenarios that even this troubleshooter cannot help at this time. The troubleshooter is still a bit rough around the edges, and we plan to improve and expand its capabilities in the future. We also hope to be able to dig a little deeper into the PowerShell vdir settings as time goes on. Also note that the troubleshooter will NOT make any modification to your IIS configuration without explicitly asking you first. Permissions required: In order to run the troubleshooter, the user will have to have the rights to log on locally to the Exchange server (due to local nature of the troubleshooter at this time) and will need permissions to run Windows PowerShell. Installing the troubleshooter: First, you will need to download the troubleshooter ZIP file, which you can find attached to this post. Installing the EMTshooter is pretty easy. Just drop the 4 files from the ZIP file into 1 folder, rename them to .ps1 and run EMTshooter.ps1 from a normal (and local) PowerShell window. I personally just created a shortcut for it on my desktop with the following properties: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -command ". 'C:\EMTshooter\EMTshooter.ps1'" However, as most users probably won't run this more than a few times you might not need or want an icon. Just remember that EMTshooter.ps1 is the main script to run. Providing feedback: As I mentioned before, the troubleshooter is still a work in progress. If you wish to provide feedback on it, please post a comment to this blog post. I will be monitoring it and replying as time allows, and also making updates to the troubleshooter if needed. If you run into errors that are not covered by the troubleshooter, please run the troubleshooter, reproduce the error through it and send me the transcript.txt file (you will find it in the folder where the 4 scripts have been placed), along with what you did to resolve the error (if the problem has been resolved). My email is sbryant AT Microsoft DOT com. Errors currently covered: Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot process the request. It cannot determine the content type of the HTTP response from the destination computer. The content type is absent or invalid. Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message: The connection to the specified remote host was refused. Verify that the WS-Management service is running on the remote host and configured to listen for requests on the correct port and HTTP URL. Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message: The WinRM client received an HTTP server error status (500), but the remote service did not include any other information about the cause of the failure. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic. It was running the command 'Discover-ExchangeServer -UseWIA $true -SuppressError $true'. Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client received an HTTP status code of 403 from the remote WS-Management service. Connecting to the remote server failed with the following error message: The WinRM client sent a request to an HTTP server and got a response saying the requested HTTP URL was not available. This is usually returned by a HTTP server that does not support the WS-Management protocol. Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The client cannot connect to the destination specified in the request. Verify that the service on the destination is running and is accepting requests. Consult the logs and documentation for the WS-Management service running on the destination, most commonly IIS or WinRM. If the destination is the WinRM service, run the following command on the destination to analyze and configure the WinRM service: Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WS-Management service does not support the request. Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message : The WinRM client cannot process the request. The WinRM client tried to use Kerberos authentication mechanism, but the destination computer - Steve Bryant
