This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with new features and improvements in the recent releases of Azure SQL Database. To learn more about Azure SQL Database, see What is Azure SQL Database?.
Preview
The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Database that are currently in preview:
Quickly compute percentiles for a large dataset with acceptable rank-based error bounds to help make rapid decisions by using approximate percentile aggregate functions.
Advance notifications are available for databases configured to use a non-default maintenance window. Advance notifications for maintenance windows are in public preview for Azure SQL Database.
Azure SQL Analytics is an advanced cloud monitoring solution for monitoring performance of all of your Azure SQL databases at scale and across multiple subscriptions in a single view. Azure SQL Analytics collects and visualizes key performance metrics with built-in intelligence for performance troubleshooting.
The Azure SQL Database emulator provides the ability to locally validate database and query design together with client application code in a simple and frictionless model as part of the application development process.
An extension to develop databases for Azure SQL Database with Azure Data Studio and VS Code. A SQL project is a local representation of SQL objects that comprise the schema for a single database, such as tables, stored procedures, or functions.
SQL Insights is a comprehensive solution for monitoring any product in the Azure SQL family. SQL Insights (preview) uses dynamic management views to expose the data you need to monitor health, diagnose problems, and tune performance.
Configure the storage account for your SQL auditing logs by using User Managed Identity (UMI).
General availability (GA)
The following table lists the new generally available (GA) features of Azure SQL Database, and those that have transitioned from preview to GA within the last 12 months:
Reverse migration to the General Purpose service tier allows customers who have recently migrated an existing database in Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier to move back in an emergency, should Hyperscale not meet their needs. While reverse migration is initiated by a service tier change, it's essentially a size-of-data move between different architectures.
The zone redundant configuration feature utilizes Azure Availability Zones to replicate databases across multiple physical locations within an Azure region. By selecting zone redundancy, you can make your Hyperscale databases resilient to a much larger set of failures, including catastrophic datacenter outages, without any changes to the application logic.
Named Replicas enable a broad variety of read scale-out scenarios, and easily implement near-real time hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) solutions.
Active geo-replication and Auto-failover groups provide a turn-key business continuity solution for Hyperscale databases, letting you perform quick disaster recovery of databases in case of a regional disaster or a large scale outage.
The ledger feature in Azure SQL Database allows you to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with.
Change data capture (CDC) lets you track all the changes that occur on a database. Though this feature has been available for SQL Server for quite some time, using it with Azure SQL Database is now generally available.
The zone redundant configuration feature utilizes Azure Availability Zones to replicate databases across multiple physical locations within an Azure region. By selecting zone redundancy, you can make your provisioned and serverless General Purpose databases and elastic pools resilient to a much larger set of failures, including catastrophic datacenter outages, without any changes to the application logic.
The maintenance window feature allows you to configure maintenance schedule for your Azure SQL Database. Maintenance window advance notifications, however, are in preview.
When creating a Hyperscale database, you can choose your preferred storage type: read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS), zone-redundant storage (ZRS), or locally redundant storage (LRS) Azure standard storage. The selected storage redundancy option will be used for the lifetime of the database for both data storage redundancy and backup storage redundancy.
It's possible to configure your Azure SQL Database to allow authentication only from Azure Active Directory.
Documentation changes
Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Database documentation.
November 2022
Changes
Details
128 vCore preview
It's now possible to provision your Azure SQL Database with up to 128 vCores in both the General Purpose, and Business Critical service tiers. See resource limits to learn more.
Azure Synapse Link for SQL GA
Azure Synapse Link for SQL, now generally available, enables near real-time analytics over operational data in SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Database. With a seamless integration between operational stores and Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pools, Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables you to run analytics, business intelligence and machine learning scenarios on your operational data with minimum impact on source databases with a new change feed technology. For more information, see What is Azure Synapse Link for SQL?.
Gen5 hardware rename
The Gen5 hardware in the vCore purchasing model has been renamed to standard-series (Gen5).
Hyperscale premium-series and premium-series memory optimized hardware preview
It's now possible to call an HTTPS REST endpoint natively, using a new system stored procedure. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, review sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint.
Generates a series of numbers within a given interval. This feature is generally available. Review GENERATE_SERIES and DATE_BUCKET to learn more.
October 2022
Changes
Details
Approximate percentiles preview
Support has been added to quickly compute percentiles using approximate percentile aggregate functions for large datasets with acceptable rank-based error bounds. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, review Approx_Percentile_Cont and Approx_Percentile_Disc.
Automated TDE key rotation for CMK GA
Automatically switch to a new key when using a customer-managed key (CMK) with TDE. This feature is now generally available. To learn more, review Automated key rotation.
Database copy of Hyperscale geo secondary replicas GA
It's now possible to use a Hyperscale geo-secondary replica as source for a database copy. This feature is generally available. For more information, see Hyperscale service tier.
September 2022
Changes
Details
Cross-subscription failover group with Azure PowerShell
It's now possible to deploy your auto-failover group for a single database across subscriptions by using Azure PowerShell. To learn more, review Configure auto-failover group.
Hyperscale databases LTR preview
It's now possible to store your Hyperscale database backups for up to 10 years using the long-term retention (LTR) capability. This feature is now in preview. To learn more, review long-term retention.
Hyperscale RA-GZRS preview
It's now possible to choose read access geo-zone-redundancy (RA-GZRS) as a backup storage redundancy for Hyperscale databases. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, review Hyperscale backup storage redundancy.
Hyperscale reverse migrate GA
This feature allows customers who have recently migrated an existing database in Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier to move back in an emergency, should Hyperscale not meet their needs. While reverse migration is initiated by a service tier change, it's essentially a size-of-data move between different architectures. This feature is now generally available. To learn more, review Reverse migration to the General Purpose service tier.
UMI support for auditing preview
It's now possible to configure the storage account used for SQL auditing logs by using User Managed Identity (UMI). This feature is currently in preview. Review auditing to learn more.
August 2022
Changes
Details
Zone redundant configuration for Hyperscale databases GA
The zone redundant configuration feature utilizes Azure Availability Zones to replicate databases across multiple physical locations within an Azure region. By selecting zone redundancy, you can make your Hyperscale databases resilient to a much larger set of failures, including catastrophic datacenter outages, without any changes to the application logic. This configuration option is now generally available. To learn more, review Zone redundant configuration for Hyperscale databases.
Query Store hints GA
You can use query hints to optimize your query execution via the OPTION clause. This feature is now generally available for Azure SQL Database. To learn more, review Query Store hints.
June 2022
Changes
Details
Named Replicas for Hyperscale databases GA
Named Replicas enable a broad variety of read scale-out scenarios, and easily implement near-real time hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) solutions. This feature is now generally available. See named replicas to learn more.
Active geo-replication and Auto-failover groups for Hyperscale databases GA
Active geo-replication and Auto-failover groups are now generally available for Hyperscale databases, providing a turn-key business continuity solution, letting you perform quick disaster recovery of databases in case of a regional disaster or a large scale outage.
May 2022
Changes
Details
Ledger GA
The ledger feature in SQL Database is now generally available. Use the ledger feature to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. See Ledger to learn more.
The Azure SQL Database local development experience is a combination of tools and procedures that empowers application developers and database professionals to design, edit, build/validate, publish, and run database schemas for databases directly on their workstation using an Azure SQL Database containerized environment. To learn more, see Local development experience for Azure SQL Database.
SQL Database emulator
The Azure SQL Database emulator provides the ability to locally validate database and query design together with client application code in a simple and frictionless model as part of the application development process. The SQL Database emulator is currently in preview. Review SQL Database emulator to learn more.
SDK-style SQL projects
Use Microsoft.Build.Sql for SDK-style SQL projects in the SQL Database Projects extension in Azure Data Studio or Visual Studio Code. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, see SDK-style SQL projects.
Azure Synapse Link for SQL for Azure SQL Database
Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables near real-time analytics over operational data in SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Database. With a seamless integration between operational stores and Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pools, Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables you to run analytics, business intelligence and machine learning scenarios on your operational data with minimum impact on source databases with a new change feed technology. For more information, see What is Azure Synapse Link for SQL? (Preview).
April 2022
Changes
Details
General Purpose tier Zone redundancy GA
Enabling zone redundancy for your provisioned and serverless General Purpose databases and elastic pools is now generally available in select regions. To learn more, including region availability see General Purpose zone redundancy.
Change data capture GA
Change data capture (CDC) lets you track all the changes that occur on a database. Though this feature has been available for SQL Server for quite some time, using it with Azure SQL Database is now generally available. To learn more, see Change data capture.
It's now possible to create new Hyperscale databases with zone redundancy to make your databases resilient to a much larger set of failures. This feature is currently in preview for the Hyperscale service tier. To learn more, see Hyperscale zone redundancy.
Hyperscale storage redundancy GA
Choosing your storage redundancy for your databases in the Hyperscale service tier is now generally available. See Configure backup storage redundancy to learn more.
Elastic transactions allow you to execute distributed transactions among cloud databases in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. Elastic transactions are now generally available.
February 2022
Changes
Details
Hyperscale reverse migration
Reverse migration is now in preview. Reverse migration to the General Purpose service tier allows customers who have recently migrated an existing database in Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier to move back in an emergency, should Hyperscale not meet their needs. While reverse migration is initiated by a service tier change, it's essentially a size-of-data move between different architectures. Learn about reverse migration from Hyperscale. Update: This feature is now generally available as of September 2022.
Try Azure SQL Database for free using the Azure free account. To learn more, review Try SQL Database for free.
2021
Changes
Details
Azure AD-only authentication
Restricting authentication to your Azure SQL Database only to Azure Active Directory users is now generally available. To learn more, see Azure AD-only authentication.
You can now use the Maintenance Window feature if your Azure SQL Database is deployed to an availability zone. This feature is currently in preview.
Azure AD-only authentication
It's now possible to restrict authentication to your Azure SQL Database to Azure Active Directory users only. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, see Azure AD-only authentication.
Query store hints
It's now possible to use query hints to optimize your query execution via the OPTION clause. To learn more, see Query store hints.
Change data capture
Using change data capture (CDC) with Azure SQL Database is now in preview. To learn more, see Change data capture.
SQL Database ledger
SQL Database ledger is in preview, and introduces the ability to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. To learn more, see Ledger.
Maintenance window
The maintenance window feature allows you to configure a maintenance schedule for your Azure SQL Database, currently in preview. To learn more, see maintenance window.
SQL Insights
SQL Insights is a comprehensive solution for monitoring any product in the Azure SQL family. The SQL Insights solution uses dynamic management views to expose the data you need to monitor health, diagnose problems, and tune performance. To learn more, see SQL Insights.
Azure SQL Database