Quickstart: Create an Azure SQL Managed Instance

Applies to: Azure SQL Managed Instance

This quickstart teaches you to create an Azure SQL Managed Instance by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, and the Azure CLI.

Note

Try Azure SQL Managed Instance free of charge and get 720 vCore hours on a General Purpose SQL Managed Instance with up to 100 databases per instance for the first 12 months.

Prerequisites

For limitations, see Supported regions and Supported subscription types.

Create an Azure SQL Managed Instance

You can create an Azure SQL Managed Instance by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, and the Azure CLI.

Consider the following:

  • You can cancel the provisioning process through Azure portal, or via PowerShell or the Azure CLI or other tooling using the REST API.
  • Instance deployment delayed if it's impacted by other operations in the same subnet, such as a long-running restore or scaling an instance.
  • Read permissions for the resource group are required to see the managed instance in your resource group.

Important

Deploying a managed instance is a long-running operation. Deploying the first instance to a subnet typically takes much longer than deploying to a subnet with existing instances.

Sign in to the Azure portal

To create your instance in the Azure portal, you'll first need to sign into the Azure portal, and then fill out the information on the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page.

To create your instance, follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal.

  2. Select Azure SQL on the left menu of the Azure portal. If Azure SQL isn't in the list, select All services, and then enter Azure SQL in the search box.

  3. Select + Create to open the Select SQL deployment option page. You can view additional information about Azure SQL Managed Instance by selecting Show details on the SQL managed instances tile.

  4. Choose Singe instance from the dropdown and then select Create to open the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page.

    Screenshot of the select SQL deployment page in the Azure portal.

Basics tab

Fill out mandatory information required on the Basics tab, which is the minimum requirement to provision a SQL Managed Instance.

The following table provides details for the required information on the Basics tab:

Setting Suggested value Description 
Subscription Your subscription. A subscription that gives you permission to create new resources.
Resource group A new or existing resource group. For valid resource group names, see Naming rules and restrictions.
Managed Instance name Any valid name. For valid names, see Naming rules and restrictions.
Region The region in which you want to create the managed instance. For information about regions, see Azure regions.
Authentication method Use SQL authentication For the purpose of this quickstart, use SQL authentication. But you can also choose to use both SQL and Microsoft Entra authentication.
Managed instance admin login Any valid username. For valid names, see Naming rules and restrictions. Don't use "serveradmin" because that's a reserved server-level role.
Password Any valid password. The password must be at least 16 characters long and meet the defined complexity requirements.

Under Managed Instance details, select Configure Managed Instance in the Compute + storage section to open the Compute + storage page.

Screenshot of the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page with Configure Managed Instance selected.

The following table provides recommendations for the compute and storage for your sample SQL Managed Instance:

Setting Suggested value Description 
Service Tier General Purpose The General Purpose tier is suitable for most production workloads, and is the default option. For more information, review service tiers and resource limits.
Hardware generation Standard-series (Gen5) Standard-series (gen5) is the default hardware generation, which defines compute and memory limits. Standard-series (Gen5) is the default.
vCores Designate a value. vCores represent the exact amount of compute resources that are always provisioned for your workload. Eight vCores is the default.
Storage in GB Designate a value. Storage size in GB, select based on expected data size.
SQL Server License Select applicable licensing model. Either pay as you go, use an existing SQL license with the Azure Hybrid Benefit, or enable the Hybrid failover rights
Backup storage redundancy Geo-redundant backup storage. Storage redundancy inside Azure for backup storage. Geo-redundant backup storage is default and recommended, though Geo-zone, Zone and Local redundancy allow for greater cost flexibility and single region data residency.

Once you've designated your Compute + Storage configuration, use Apply to save your settings, and navigate back to the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page. Select Next to move to the Networking tab

Networking tab

Fill out optional information on the Networking tab. If you omit this information, the portal will apply default settings.

The following table provides details for information on the Networking tab:

Setting Suggested value Description 
Virtual network / subnet Create new, or use an existing virtual network If a network or subnet is unavailable, it must be modified to satisfy the network requirements before you select it as a target for the new managed instance.
Connection type Choose a suitable connection type. For more information, see connection types.
Public endpoint Select Disable. For a managed instance to be accessible through the public data endpoint, you need to enable this option.
Allow access from (if Public endpoint is enabled) Select No Access The portal configures the security group with a public endpoint.

Based on your scenario, select one of the following options:
  • Azure services: We recommend this option when you're connecting from Power BI or another multitenant service.
  • Internet: Use for test purposes when you want to quickly spin up a managed instance. Not recommended for production environments.
  • No access: This option creates a Deny security rule. Modify this rule to make a managed instance accessible through a public endpoint.

For more information on public endpoint security, see Using Azure SQL Managed Instance securely with a public endpoint.

Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a managed instance. Or, configure security settings by selecting Next: Security settings.

Security tab

For the purpose of this quickstart, leave the settings on the Security tab at their default values.

Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a managed instance. Or, configure more custom settings by selecting Next: Additional settings.

Additional settings

Fill out optional information on the Additional settings tab. If you omit this information, the portal applies default settings.

The following table provides details for information on the Additional settings tab:

Setting Suggested value Description 
Collation Choose the collation that you want to use for your managed instance. If you migrate databases from SQL Server, check the source collation by using SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(N'Collation') and use that value. For information about collations, see Set or change the server collation.
Time zone Select the time zone that managed instance will observe. For more information, see Time zones.
Geo-Replication Select No. Only enable this option if you plan to use the managed instance as a failover group secondary.
Maintenance window Choose a suitable maintenance window. Designate a[schedule for when your instance is maintained by the service.

Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a managed instance. Or, configure Azure Tags by selecting Next: Tags (recommended).

Tags

Add tags to resources in your Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template). Tags help you logically organize your resources. The tag values show up in cost reports and allow for other management activities by tag. Consider at least tagging your new SQL Managed Instance with the Owner tag to identify who created, and the Environment tag to identify whether this system is Production, Development, etc. For more information, see Develop your naming and tagging strategy for Azure resources.

Select Review + create to proceed.

Review + create

On the Review + create tab, review your choices, and then select Create to deploy your managed instance.

Monitor deployment progress

  1. Select the Notifications icon to view the status of the deployment.

    Screenshot of the Deployment progress of a SQL Managed Instance deployment.

  2. Select Deployment in progress in the notification to open the SQL Managed Instance window and further monitor the deployment progress.

Once deployment completes, navigate to your resource group to view your managed instance:

Screenshot of the SQL Managed Instance resources in the Azure portal.

Tip

If you closed your web browser or moved away from the deployment progress screen, you can monitor the provisioning operation via the managed instance's Overview page in the Azure portal, PowerShell or the Azure CLI.

Review network settings

Select the Route table resource in your resource group to review the default user-defined route table object and entries to route traffic from, and within, the SQL Managed Instance virtual network. To change or add routes, open the Routes in the Route table settings.

Screenshot of the Entry for a SQL Managed Instance subnet to local in the Azure portal.

Select the Network security group object to review the inbound and outbound security rules. To change or add rules, open the Inbound Security Rules and Outbound security rules in the Network security group settings.

Screenshot of the Security rules for your instance in the Azure portal.

Important

If you enabled public endpoint for SQL Managed Instance, open ports to allow network traffic connections to SQL Managed Instance from the public internet.

Create database

You can create a new database by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI.

To create a new database for your instance in the Azure portal, follow these steps:

  1. Go to your SQL managed instance in the Azure portal.

  2. Select + New database on the Overview page for your SQL managed instance to open the Create Azure SQL Managed Database page.

    Screenshot of creating a new database in the Azure portal.

  3. Provide a name for the database on the Basics tab.

  4. On the Data source tab, select None for an empty database, or restore a database from backup.

  5. Configure the remaining settings on the remaining tabs, and then select Review + create to validate your choices.

  6. Use Create to deploy your database.

Retrieve connection details to SQL Managed Instance

To connect to SQL Managed Instance, follow these steps to retrieve the host name and fully qualified domain name (FQDN):

  1. Return to the resource group and select the SQL managed instance object that was created.

  2. On the Overview tab, locate the Host property. Copy the host name to your clipboard for the managed instance for use in the next quickstart by clicking the Copy to clipboard button.

    Screenshot of the Overview page for the instance in the Azure portal with the hostname selected.

    The value copied represents a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that can be used to connect to SQL Managed Instance. It's similar to the following address example: your_host_name.a1b2c3d4e5f6.database.windows.net.

Review the following related content:

To restore an existing SQL Server database from on-premises to SQL Managed Instance:

Next steps

Connect your applications to SQL Managed Instance.