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Features and Enhancements in Management Pack for Azure SQL Database

This section covers new functionality and improvements in Management Pack for Azure SQL Database.

July 2025 – 7.10.3.0 RTM

What’s New

  • Replaced System.Data.SqlClient with the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient data provider for SQL Server (MDS):

    • Actively maintained and enhanced by Microsoft.
    • Supports the latest protocols and features, including TDS 8.0, TLS 1.3, and Always Encrypted.

  • Added support for enabling debug logging in the System Center Operations Manager Windows Event Log.

  • Included minor enhancements and routine maintenance updates to improve system stability and overall reliability.

  • Updated the "Product Version Compliance" monitor with the latest public updates for SQL Server

December 2022 - 7.0.42.0 RTM

What's New

  • Updated the SPN creation process related to the latest changes in Azure API
  • Added a new regular expression filtering mask type in the 'Server Filter List' monitoring wizard, now the server names can be filtered using regular expression for include and exclude from the monitoring
  • Added a new regular expression filtering mask type in the 'Database Filter List' monitoring wizard, now the database names can be filtered using regular expression for include and exclude from the monitoring
  • Added a new "Allocated Storage Percentage" monitor, which tracks the allocated space in Elastic Pool
  • Added a new "Elastic Pool Data Space Allocated Percentage" performance rule, which collects the metric 'Data space allocated percentage' of Microsoft Azure SQL Elastic Database Pool in percentage terms
  • Added a new "Elastic Pool Data Max Size" performance rule, which collects the metric 'Data max size' of Microsoft Azure SQL Elastic Database Pool in megabytes
  • Added a new "Elastic Pool Data Space Used" performance rule, which collects the metric 'Data space used' of Microsoft Azure SQL Elastic Database Pool in megabytes
  • Updated display strings

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with creating SPN with unnecessary API permissions for the Azure AD application
  • Fixed an issue with incorrect space calculation for databases in the Hyperscale pricing tier - "Database Free Space" monitor, "Free Space (MB)", "Free Space Percentage", "Used Space Percentage", and "Total Space Quota (MB)" performance rules
  • Fixed an issue with incorrect space calculation in the "Allocated Space Percent" performance rule in case of T-SQL monitoring
  • Fixed an issue with failing custom monitoring wizard in the case of the wrong 'Target type' being selected

October 2020 - 7.0.26.0 RTM

What's New

  • Added filtering list for SQL Servers and Databases to "Add Monitoring Wizard" template
  • Removed deprecated workflows

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue with "Elastic Pool" performance data on vCore-based pricing tiers

September 2020 - 7.0.25.0 CTP

What's New

  • Added support of vCore-based pricing tier
  • Updated the token renewal algorithm to get rid of 401 responses
  • Updated Core Library MP and the “Summary” Dashboard
  • Updated display strings

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with an unnecessary slash symbol in some requests to Azure REST API
  • Fixed monitoring issues for databases that are replicated by failover groups and elastic pools

September 2019 - 7.0.5.0 private drop

What's New

  • Fixed issue: datediff used for Long Running Transactions monitoring results in overflow in some environments

April 2018 - 7.0.4.0 RTM

What's New

  • Provided a few minor UI improvements to the "Add Monitoring Wizard"

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue: The management pack may stop working due to a conflict of the Azure REST API libraries with the ones coming from the Microsoft Azure Management Pack

May 2017 - 6.7.28.0 RTM

What's New

  • Due to performance problems, several monitors and performance rules were enabled for getting information via T-SQL queries only (the affected metrics are as follows: Failed Connections, Blocked Connections, Successful Connections, Deadlocks Count)

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed "DB Transactions Locks Count" rule and "Transaction Locks Count" monitor
  • Fixed "Azure SQL Database Event Log Collection Target Management Service" discovery
  • Fixed "Server Exclude list" filter issue: 'server name couldn't contain whitespaces'
  • Fixed the display strings, implemented appropriate Azure portal naming style

March 2017 - 6.7.25.0 CTP2

What's New

  • Implemented performance improvements
  • Improved error handling in "Add Monitoring Wizard"

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue: "Collect Elastic Database Pool Number of Databases" rule doesn't collect performance data if REST monitoring is used
  • Fixed issue: "Operations Manager Expression Filter Module" error messages appear in the Operations Manager event log

December 2016 - 6.7.11.0 CTP1

What's New

  • Azure Resource Manager is now supported: the previous versions of the Management Pack used T-SQL queries to SQL Server system views to get information on the health and performance of the databases; now, the Management Pack can also get this information from Azure REST API (this is a preferred option)
  • Multiple subscriptions and multiple servers are now supported
  • Added support for Azure AD authentication
  • Added regular expression filtering capability for Azure SQL Database instances and Elastic Pools
  • Improved monitoring efficiency: monitoring target is now defined by monitoring pool; 'Watcher Node' class is considered to be deprecated
  • Improved System Center Operations Manager "Add Monitoring Wizard" to reflect the new features of the Management Pack
  • Added health monitoring for Database Geo-Replication
  • Added health monitoring for Elastic Pools
  • Added monitoring for “Average DTU utilization percentage” metric
  • Introduced performance improvements to the Management Pack
  • Optimized performance rules notation: all Object Names are standardized; Instance Names aren't used anymore
  • Updated the visualization library

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue: some rules work only if more than 1% of Azure SQL Database space is used

June 2016 - 1.6.1.0

What's New

  • Added Dashboards
  • Added many new monitors and rules, including the following:
    • CPU Usage (%)
    • Workers Usage (%)
    • Log write (%)
    • Data I/O (%)
    • Sessions (%)
    • Count Failed Connection
    • Count Successful Connection
    • Count Connection Blocked by Firewall
    • Count of Deadlock
    • Count Throttling long transaction
    • Count Connection Failed
    • XTP Storage (In-memory OLTP Storage in percentage terms)
  • Deprecated "Collect Azure SQL Database Internal/External Network Egress/Ingress" performance rules
  • Deprecated "SQL Azure Federation" and "Federation member" workflows
  • Updated the management pack workflow names