Configure maintenance window in Azure SQL Database

Applies to: Azure SQL Database

• Azure SQL Database
• Azure SQL Managed Instance

You can configure the maintenance window for a database or elastic pool in Azure SQL Database, or anytime after a resource is created.

• The System default maintenance window is 5PM to 8AM daily (local time of the Azure region the resource is located) to avoid peak business hours interruptions.
• If the System default maintenance window is not the best time, select one of the other available maintenance windows.

The ability to change to a different maintenance window is not available for every service level or in every region. For details on feature availability, see Maintenance window availability.

Important

Configuring maintenance window is a long running asynchronous operation, similar to changing the service tier of the Azure SQL resource. The resource is available during the operation, except a short reconfiguration that happens at the end of the operation and typically lasts up to 8 seconds even in case of interrupted long-running transactions. To minimize the impact of the reconfiguration you should perform the operation outside of the peak hours.

Configure maintenance window during database creation

Portal

To configure the maintenance window when you create a database or elastic pool, set the desired Maintenance window on the Additional settings page.

Set the maintenance window while creating a single database or elastic pool

For step-by-step information on creating a new database or pool, see Create an Azure SQL Database single database.

PowerShell

The following examples show how to configure the maintenance window using Azure PowerShell. You can install Azure PowerShell, or use the Azure Cloud Shell.

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

The Azure Cloud Shell is a free interactive shell that you can use to run the steps in this article. It has common Azure tools preinstalled and configured to use with your account.

To open the Cloud Shell, select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com.

When Cloud Shell opens, verify that PowerShell is selected for your environment. Subsequent sessions will use Azure CLI in a PowerShell environment. Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press Enter to run it.

Discover available maintenance windows

When setting the maintenance window, each region has its own maintenance window options that correspond to the timezone for the region the database or pool is located.

Discover SQL Database and elastic pool maintenance windows

The following example returns the available maintenance windows for the eastus2 region using the Get-AzMaintenancePublicConfiguration cmdlet. For databases and elastic pools, set MaintenanceScope to SQLDB.

$location = "eastus2"

Write-Host "Available maintenance schedules in ${location}:"
$configurations = Get-AzMaintenancePublicConfiguration
$configurations | ?{ $_.Location -eq $location -and $_.MaintenanceScope -eq "SQLDB"}

Set the maintenance window while creating a single database

The following example creates a new database and sets the maintenance window using the New-AzSqlDatabase cmdlet. The -MaintenanceConfigurationId must be set to a valid value for your database's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Set variables for your database
 $resourceGroupName = "your_resource_group_name"
 $serverName = "your_server_name"
 $databaseName = "your_db_name"
 
 # Set selected maintenance window
 $maintenanceConfig = "SQL_EastUS2_DB_1"

 Write-host "Creating a standard-series (Gen5) 2 vCore database with maintenance window ${maintenanceConfig} ..."
 $database = New-AzSqlDatabase `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -DatabaseName $databaseName `
   -Edition GeneralPurpose `
   -ComputeGeneration Gen5 `
   -VCore 2 `
   -MaintenanceConfigurationId $maintenanceConfig
 $database

Set the maintenance window while creating an elastic pool

The following example creates a new elastic pool and sets the maintenance window using the New-AzSqlElasticPool cmdlet. The maintenance window is set on the elastic pool, so all databases in the pool have the pool's maintenance window schedule. The -MaintenanceConfigurationId must be set to a valid value for your pool's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Set variables for your pool
 $resourceGroupName = "your_resource_group_name"
 $serverName = "your_server_name"
 $poolName = "your_pool_name"
 
 # Set selected maintenance window
 $maintenanceConfig = "SQL_EastUS2_DB_2"

 Write-host "Creating a Standard 50 pool with maintenance window ${maintenanceConfig} ..."
 $pool = New-AzSqlElasticPool `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -ElasticPoolName $poolName `
   -Edition "Standard" `
   -Dtu 50 `
   -DatabaseDtuMin 10 `
   -DatabaseDtuMax 20 `
   -MaintenanceConfigurationId $maintenanceConfig
 $pool

CLI

The following examples show how to configure the maintenance window using Azure CLI. You can install Azure CLI, or use the Azure Cloud Shell.

Launch Azure Cloud Shell

The Azure Cloud Shell is a free interactive shell that you can use to run the steps in this article. It has common Azure tools preinstalled and configured to use with your account.

To open the Cloud Shell, select Try it from the upper right corner of a code block. You can also launch Cloud Shell in a separate browser tab by going to https://shell.azure.com.

When Cloud Shell opens, verify that Bash is selected for your environment. Subsequent sessions will use Azure CLI in a Bash environment. Select Copy to copy the blocks of code, paste it into the Cloud Shell, and press Enter to run it.

Sign in to Azure

Cloud Shell is automatically authenticated under the initial account signed-in with. Use the following script to sign in using a different subscription, replacing <Subscription ID> with your Azure Subscription ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create an Azure free account before you begin.

subscription="<subscriptionId>" # add subscription here

az account set -s $subscription # ...or use 'az login'

For more information, see set active subscription or sign in interactively

Discover available maintenance windows

When setting the maintenance window, each region has its own maintenance window options that correspond to the timezone for the region the database or pool is located.

Discover SQL Database and elastic pool maintenance windows

The following example returns the available maintenance windows for the eastus2 region using the az maintenance public-configuration list command. For databases and elastic pools, set maintenanceScope to SQLDB.

location="eastus2"

az maintenance public-configuration list --query "[?location=='$location'&&contains(maintenanceScope,'SQLDB')]"

Set the maintenance window while creating a single database

The following example creates a new database and sets the maintenance window using the az sql db create command. The --maint-config-id (or -m) must be set to a valid value for your database's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Set variables for your database
 resourceGroupName="your_resource_group_name"
 serverName="your_server_name"
 databaseName="your_db_name"

 # Set selected maintenance window
 maintenanceConfig="SQL_EastUS2_DB_1"

 # Create database
 az sql db create \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $databaseName \
   --edition GeneralPurpose \
   --family Gen5 \
   --capacity 2 \
   --maint-config-id $maintenanceConfig

Set the maintenance window while creating an elastic pool

The following example creates a new elastic pool and sets the maintenance window using the az sql elastic-pool create cmdlet. The maintenance window is set on the elastic pool, so all databases in the pool have the pool's maintenance window schedule. The --maint-config-id (or -m) must be set to a valid value for your pool's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Set variables for your pool
 resourceGroupName="your_resource_group_name"
 serverName="your_server_name"
 poolName="your_pool_name"

 # Set selected maintenance window
 maintenanceConfig="SQL_EastUS2_DB_2"

 # Create elastic pool
 az sql elastic-pool create \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $poolName \
   --edition GeneralPurpose \
   --family Gen5 \
   --capacity 2 \
   --maint-config-id $maintenanceConfig

Configure maintenance window for existing databases

When applying a maintenance window selection to a database, a brief reconfiguration (several seconds) might be experienced in some cases as Azure applies the required changes.

Portal

The following steps set the maintenance window on an existing database or elastic pool using the Azure portal:

Set the maintenance window for an existing database or elastic pool

1. Navigate to the SQL database or elastic pool you want to set the maintenance window for.

2. In the Settings menu select Maintenance, then select the desired maintenance window.

   

PowerShell

Set the maintenance window for an existing database

The following example sets the maintenance window on an existing database using the Set-AzSqlDatabase cmdlet. The -MaintenanceConfigurationId must be set to a valid value for your database's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Select different maintenance window
 $maintenanceConfig = "SQL_EastUS2_DB_2"

 Write-host "Changing database maintenance window to ${maintenanceConfig} ..."
 $database = Set-AzSqlDatabase `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -DatabaseName $databaseName `
   -MaintenanceConfigurationId $maintenanceConfig
 $database

Set the maintenance window on an existing elastic pool

The following example sets the maintenance window on an existing elastic pool using the Set-AzSqlElasticPool cmdlet. It's important to make sure that the $maintenanceConfig value is a valid value for your pool's region. To get valid values for a region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Select different maintenance window
 $maintenanceConfig = "SQL_EastUS2_DB_1"
 
 Write-host "Changing pool maintenance window to ${maintenanceConfig} ..."
 $pool = Set-AzSqlElasticPool `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -ElasticPoolName $poolName `
   -MaintenanceConfigurationId $maintenanceConfig
 $pool

CLI

The following examples show how to configure the maintenance window using Azure CLI. You can install Azure CLI, or use the Azure Cloud Shell.

Set the maintenance window for an existing database

The following example sets the maintenance window on an existing database using the az sql db update command. The --maint-config-id (or -m) must be set to a valid value for your database's region. To get valid values for your region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Select different maintenance window
 maintenanceConfig="SQL_EastUS2_DB_2"

 # Update database
 az sql db update \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $databaseName \
   --maint-config-id $maintenanceConfig

Set the maintenance window on an existing elastic pool

The following example sets the maintenance window on an existing elastic pool using the az sql elastic-pool update command. It's important to make sure that the maintenanceConfig value is a valid value for your pool's region. To get valid values for a region, see Discover available maintenance windows.

 # Select different maintenance window
 maintenanceConfig="SQL_EastUS2_DB_1"

 # Update pool
 az sql elastic-pool update \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $poolName \
   --maint-config-id $maintenanceConfig

Cleanup resources

If you create Azure SQL resources as part of this tutorial, be sure to delete unneeded resources after you're finished with them to avoid unnecessary charges.

Portal

1. Navigate to the SQL database or elastic pool you no longer need.
2. On the Overview menu, select the option to delete the resource.

PowerShell

# Delete database
Remove-AzSqlDatabase `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -DatabaseName $databaseName

# Delete elastic pool
Remove-AzSqlElasticPool `
   -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName `
   -ServerName $serverName `
   -ElasticPoolName $poolName

CLI

az sql db delete \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $databaseName

az sql elastic-pool delete \
   --resource-group $resourceGroupName \
   --server $serverName \
   --name $poolName

Related content

• To learn more about maintenance window, see Maintenance window.
• For more information, see Maintenance window FAQ.
• To learn about optimizing performance, see Monitoring and performance tuning in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance.