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Applies to: 
Azure SQL Managed Instance
This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with new features and improvements in the recent releases of Azure SQL Managed Instance. To learn more about Azure SQL Managed Instance, see What is Azure SQL Managed Instance?
Note
Microsoft Entra ID was previously known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that are currently in preview.
Note
Features currently in preview are available under supplemental terms of use, review for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability. Azure SQL Managed Instance provides previews to give you a chance to evaluate and share feedback with the product group on features before they become generally available (GA).
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Database watcher for Azure SQL | Database watcher is a managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family. Database watcher collects in-depth workload monitoring data to give you a detailed view of database performance, configuration, and health. Learn more about database watcher. |
| Endpoint policies | Configure which Azure Storage accounts can be accessed from a SQL Managed Instance subnet. Grants an extra layer of protection against inadvertent or malicious data exfiltration. |
| Free SQL Managed Instance | Try Azure SQL Managed Instance for free, for the first 12 months after you create your instance. |
| JSON native data type | The new JSON native data type is currently in preview. For more information, see JSON Type and aggregates preview. Your SQL managed instance must be configured with the Always-up-to-date update policy. |
| JSON aggregate functions | Two new JSON aggregate functions JSON_OBJECTAGG and JSON_ARRAYAGG enable construction of JSON objects or arrays based on an aggregate from SQL data. Your SQL managed instance must be configured with the Always-up-to-date update policy. For more information, see JSON Type and aggregates preview. |
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. |
| Modernization Advisor | Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal to help you determine if migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance from a SQL Server VM saves you money or optimizes performance. |
| Next-gen General Purpose | An architectural upgrade of the General Purpose service tier that uses managed disks for greater resource flexibility, and improved performance while maintaining the same baseline cost as the General Purpose service tier. |
| SDK-style SQL project | Use Microsoft.Build.Sql for SDK-style SQL projects in the SQL Database Projects extension in Azure Data Studio or Visual Studio Code. SDK-style SQL projects are especially advantageous for applications shipped through pipelines or built in cross-platform environments. |
| Service Broker | Support for cross-instance message exchange using Service Broker between instances of Azure SQL Managed Instance, and between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP | Use the sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. |
| Threat detection | Threat detection notifies you of security threats detected to your database. |
| Zone redundancy for General Purpose | Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. |
The following table lists features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that have been made generally available (GA) within the last 12 months:
| Feature | GA Month | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Native Windows principals | February 2025 | Use the new Windows authentication metadata mode to allow Windows authentication or Microsoft Entra authentication (using a Windows principal metadata) with Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Instance pools | November 2024 | Save on costs and share resources between multiple instances in a pool within a single virtual machine. A convenient and cost-efficient way to migrate smaller SQL Server instances to the cloud, and the only way to deploy a 2-vCore managed instance. |
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support | November 2024 | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. |
| Fail over a link with T-SQL | October 2024 | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. |
| Link from SQL MI to SQL Server | October 2024 | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. |
| Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 | October 2024 | In the event of a disaster, you can fail your SQL Server 2022 workloads to Azure SQL Managed Instance using the link, and then, once the disaster is mitigated, you can fail back to SQL Server. |
| CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL | August 2024 | A Transact-SQL (T-SQL) function that returns the current database system date as a date value, without the database time and time zone offset. |
| Maintenance window advance notifications | June 2024 | Advance notifications for SQL managed instance maintenance window are now generally available. |
| Update policy | May 2024 | Use the update policy to control your internal database format alignment and access to the latest SQL Database Engine features. You can choose to either limit the feature set to features that are available in SQL Server 2022, or ensure your instance takes advantage of all the latest features of Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions | March 2024 | Azure Functions supports function triggers for Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation. For previous years, see the What's new archive.
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP preview | Use the sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. This stored procedure is currently in preview for Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Native Windows principals GA | Use the Windows authentication metadata mode to allow Windows authentication or Microsoft Entra authentication (using a Windows principal metadata) with Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is now generally available (GA). Review Native Windows principals to learn more. |
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| SQL Insights retired | SQL Insights has been retired and is no longer available. Use database watcher or another monitoring solution to monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Modernization Advisor preview | Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal for your SQL Server on Azure VM to determine if you can save on cost or optimize your performance by migrating your workload to Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is currently in preview. Review Modernization Advisor to learn more. |
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Free instance offer updates | The free offer has a few new updates, such as dramatically simplifying the upgrade of your free instance to a paid version, and viewing how many free vCore hours remain for the month. Additionally, the free offer is now available in another nine subscription types. This feature is still in preview. Review Free offer to learn more. |
| Instance pools GA | Save on costs and share resources between multiple instances in a pool within a single virtual machine. A convenient and cost-efficient way to migrate smaller SQL Server instances to the cloud, and the only way to deploy a 2-vCore managed instance. And now, with reservations support, you can save significantly more on your compute by allocating your reservations to an instance pool. Instance pools are now generally available. Review Instance pools to learn more. |
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support GA | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. This feature is now generally available. For more information, see Microsoft Entra nonunique name support. |
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Fail over a link with T-SQL GA | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. This feature is now generally available. Review Fail over a link with T-SQL to learn more. |
| Link from SQL MI to SQL Server GA | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. This feature is now generally available. Review Link from SQL MI to SQL Server to learn more. |
| Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 GA | In the event of a disaster, you can fail your SQL Server 2022 workloads to Azure SQL Managed Instance using the link, and then, once the disaster is mitigated, you can fail back to SQL Server. This feature is now generally available. Review Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 to learn more. |
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL GA | The CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL (T-SQL) function returns the current database system date as a date value, without the database time and time zone offset. This function is now generally available. For more information, see CURRENT_DATE (Transact-SQL). |
| JSON native data type preview | The new JSON native data type is currently in preview. For more information, see JSON Type and aggregates preview. Your SQL managed instance must be configured with the Always-up-to-date update policy. |
| JSON aggregate functions preview | Two new JSON aggregate functions JSON_OBJECTAGG and JSON_ARRAYAGG enable construction of JSON objects or arrays based on an aggregate from SQL data. For more information, see JSON Type and aggregates preview. Your SQL managed instance must be configured with the the Always-up-to-date update policy. |
| Fail over link with T-SQL preview | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. This capability is currently in preview starting with SQL Server 2022 CU13 (KB5036432). To learn more, review fail over a database. |
For previous news, see the What's new archive.
The known issues content has moved to a dedicated known issues in SQL Managed Instance article.
To contribute to the Azure SQL documentation, see the Docs contributor guide.
Training
Module
Deploy and manage an Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance - Training
Describe how to deploy and manage an Azure Arc-enabled SQL managed instance.
Certification
Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate - Certifications
Administer an SQL Server database infrastructure for cloud, on-premises and hybrid relational databases using the Microsoft PaaS relational database offerings.