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Prerequisites

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An Azure Arc-enabled instance of SQL Server is an instance on-premises or in a cloud provider that is connected to Azure Arc. This article explains those prerequisites.

Before you deploy

Before you can Arc-enable an instance of SQL Server, you need to:

Permissions

To Connect SQL Servers on Azure Arc-enabled servers at scale using Azure policy for you to create an Azure Policy assignment, your subscription requires the Resource Policy Contributor role assignment for the scope that you're targeting. The scope may be either subscription or resource group. Further, if you are going to create a new system assigned managed identity, you need the User Access Administrator role assignment in the subscription.

For all the other onboarding methods, user or service principal must have permissions in the Azure resource group to complete the task. Specifically:

  • Azure Connected Machine Onboarding role
  • Microsoft.AzureArcData/register/action
  • Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/extensions/read
  • Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/extensions/write

Users can be assigned to built-in roles that have these permissions, for example Contributor or Owner. For more information, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

  • Have local administrator permission on the operating system to install and configure the agent.
    • For Linux, use the root account.
    • For Windows, use an account that is a member of the Local Administrators group.

Supported SQL Server versions and operating systems

Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server supports SQL Server 2012 (11.x) and later versions, running on one of the following versions of the Windows or Linux operating system:

  • Windows Server 2012 and later versions
  • Ubuntu 20.04 (x64)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 (x64)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 (x64)

Important

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 support ends on October 10, 2023. For more information, see SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 end of support.

Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server doesn't currently support the following configurations:

  • SQL Server running in containers.
  • SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI).
  • SQL Server roles other than the Database Engine, such as Analysis Services (SSAS), Reporting Services (SSRS), or Integration Services (SSIS).
  • SQL Server editions: Business Intelligence.
  • SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x), SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x), and older versions.
  • Installing the Arc agent and SQL Server extension can't be done as part of sysprep image creation.
  • SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.
  • SQL Server Azure VMware Solution.

Note

Azure extension for SQL Server fully supports VMware clusters outside of Azure. Although the SQL Server 2022 (16.x) Setup Installation Wizard does not support installation of the Azure extension for SQL Server, this component can be installed from the command line in quiet mode, or by connecting SQL Server to Azure Arc. For more information, see Install and connect to Azure and Connect your SQL Server to Azure Arc.

Register resource providers

To register the resource providers, use one of the following methods:

  1. Select Subscriptions.
  2. Choose your subscription.
  3. Under Settings, select Resource providers.
  4. Search for Microsoft.AzureArcData and Microsoft.HybridCompute and select Register.

Azure subscription and service limits

The maximum number of resources in a resource group is 800, per resource type. This limitation applies to Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server instances and databases. Before configuring your SQL Server instances and machines with Azure Arc, review the Azure Resource Manager subscription limits and resource group limits to plan for the number of machines to be connected.

Supported regions

Arc-enabled SQL Server is available in the following regions:

  • East US
  • East US 2
  • West US
  • West US 2
  • West US 3
  • Central US
  • North Central US
  • South Central US
  • Canada Central
  • UK South
  • France Central
  • West Europe
  • North Europe
  • Japan East
  • Korea Central
  • East Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Australia East

Next steps