Known issues with Azure SQL Managed Instance
Applies to: 
Azure SQL Managed Instance
This article lists the currently known issues with Azure SQL Managed Instance, and their resolution date or possible workaround. To learn more about Azure SQL Managed Instance, see What is Azure SQL Managed Instance?, and What's new in Azure SQL Managed Instance?
Note
Microsoft Entra ID was previously known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
Known issues
Has workaround
List of long-term backups in Azure portal shows backup files for active and deleted databases with the same name
Long-term backups can be listed and managed on Azure portal page for an Azure SQL Managed Instance on Backups tab. The page lists active or deleted databases, basic information about their long-term backups, and link for managing backups. When you select the Manage link, a new side pane opens with list of backups. Due to an issue with the filtering logic, the list shows backups for both active database and deleted databases with the same name. This requires a special attention when selecting backups for deletion, to avoid deleting backups for a wrong database.
Workaround: Use displayed Backup time (UTC) information in the list to differentiate backups belonging to databases with the same name that existed on the instance at different periods. Alternatively, use PowerShell commands Get-AzSqlInstanceDatabaseLongTermRetentionBackup and Remove-AzSqlInstanceDatabaseLongTermRetentionBackup, or CLI commands az sql midb ltr-backup list and az sql midb ltr-backup delete to manage long-term backups using DatabaseState parameter and DatabaseDeletionTime return value to filter backups for a database.
The event_file target of the system_health event session is not accessible
When you attempt to read the contents of the event_file target of the system_health event session, you get error 40538, "A valid URL beginning with 'https://' is required as value for any filepath specified." This occurs in SQL Server Management Studio, or when reading the session data using the sys.fn_xe_file_target_read_file function.
This change in behavior is an unintended consequence of a recent required security fix. We are investigating the feasibility of an additional change that would allow customers to continue using the system_health session on Azure SQL Managed Instance securely. In the meantime, customers can work around this issue by creating their own equivalent of the system_health session with an event_file target in Azure blob storage. For more information, including a T-SQL script to create the system_health session that can be modified to create your own equivalent of system_health, see Use the system_health session.
Procedure sp_send_dbmail might fail when @query parameter
Procedure sp_send_dbmail might fail when @query parameter is used. Failures happen when the stored procedure is executed under sysadmin account.
This problem is caused by a known bug related to how sp_send_dbmail is using impersonation.
Workaround: Make sure you call sp_send_dbmail under appropriate custom account you've created, and not under sysadmin account.
Here's an example of how you can create a dedicated account and modify existing objects that are sending email via sp_send_dbmail.
USE [msdb]
GO
-- Step 1: Create a user mapped to a login to specify as a runtime user.
CREATE USER [user_name] FOR LOGIN [login_name]
GO
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_jobstep @job_name=N'db_mail_sending_job', @step_id=db_mail_sending_job_id , @database_user_name=N'user_name'
GO
-- Step 2: Grant DB Mail permissions to the user who created it.
ALTER ROLE [DatabaseMailUserRole] ADD MEMBER [user_name]
GO
-- Step 3: If the database of the job step is not msdb, the permission error cannot be avoided even if it is a member of the role, so set it to msdb.
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_jobstep @job_name=N'db_mail_sending_job', @step_id=db_mail_sending_job_id , @database_name=N'msdb'
GO
-- Step 4: Set a principal in the email profile
EXEC msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_principalprofile_sp @principal_name=N'user_name', @profile_name=N'profile_name', @is_default=0
GO
Interim guidance on 2022 time zone updates for Chile
On August 8, 2022, the Chilean government made an official announcement about a Daylight-Saving Time (DST) time zone change. Starting at 12:00 a.m. Saturday, September 10, 2022, until 12:00 a.m. Saturday, April 1, 2023, the official time will advance 60 minutes. The change affects the following three time zones: Pacific SA Standard Time, Easter Island Standard Time and Magallanes Standard Time. Azure SQL Managed Instances using affected time zones don't reflect the changes until Microsoft releases an OS update to support this, and Azure SQL Managed Instance service absorbs the update on the OS level.
Workaround: If you need to alter affected time zones for your managed instances, be aware of the limitations and follow the guidance from the documentation.
Change the connection type doesn't affect connections through the failover group endpoint
If an instance participates in a failover group, changing the instance's connection type doesn't take effect for the connections established through the failover group listener endpoint.
Workaround: Drop and recreate failover group after changing the connection type.
Procedure sp_send_dbmail might transiently fail when @query parameter is used
Procedure sp_send_dbmail might transiently fail when @query parameter is used. When this issue occurs, every second execution of procedure sp_send_dbmail fails with error Msg 22050, Level 16, State 1 and message Failed to initialize sqlcmd library with error number -2147467259. To be able to see this error properly, the procedure should be called with default value 0 for the parameter @exclude_query_output, otherwise the error isn't propagated.
This problem is caused by a known bug related to how sp_send_dbmail is using impersonation and connection pooling.
To work around this issue wrap code for sending email into a retry logic that relies on output parameter @mailitem_id. If the execution fails, then parameter value is NULL, indicating sp_send_dbmail should be called one more time to successfully send an email. Here is an example this retry logic:
CREATE PROCEDURE send_dbmail_with_retry AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @miid INT
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@recipients = 'name@mail.com', @subject = 'Subject', @query = 'select * from dbo.test_table',
@profile_name ='AzureManagedInstance_dbmail_profile', @execute_query_database = 'testdb',
@mailitem_id = @miid OUTPUT
-- If sp_send_dbmail returned NULL @mailidem_id then retry sending email.
--
IF (@miid is NULL)
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@recipients = 'name@mail.com', @subject = 'Subject', @query = 'select * from dbo.test_table',
@profile_name ='AzureManagedInstance_dbmail_profile', @execute_query_database = 'testdb',
END
Distributed transactions can be executed after removing managed instance from Server Trust Group
Server Trust Groups are used to establish trust between managed instances that is prerequisite for executing distributed transactions. After removing managed instance from Server Trust Group or deleting the group, you still might be able to execute distributed transactions. There's a workaround you can apply to be sure that distributed transactions are disabled and that is user-initiated manual failover on the managed instance.
Distributed transactions can't be executed after managed instance scaling operation
SQL Managed Instance scaling operations that include changing service tier or number of vCores will reset Server Trust Group settings on the backend and disable running distributed transactions. As a workaround, delete and create new Server Trust Group on Azure portal.
Can't create SQL Managed Instance with the same name as logical server previously deleted
A DNS record of <name>.database.windows.com is created when you create a logical server in Azure for Azure SQL Database, and when you create a SQL Managed Instance. The DNS record must be unique. As such, if you create a logical server for SQL Database and then delete it, there's a threshold period of seven days before the name is released from the records. In that period, a SQL Managed Instance can't be created with the same name as the deleted logical server. As a workaround, use a different name for the SQL Managed Instance, or create a support ticket to release the logical server name.
Service Principal can't access Microsoft Entra ID and AKV
In some circumstances, there might exist an issue with Service Principal used to access Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) and Azure Key Vault (AKV) services. As a result, this issue impacts usage of Microsoft Entra authentication and transparent data encryption (TDE) with SQL Managed Instance. This might be experienced as an intermittent connectivity issue, or not being able to run statements such are CREATE LOGIN/USER FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER or EXECUTE AS LOGIN/USER. Setting up TDE with customer-managed key on a new Azure SQL Managed Instance might also not work in some circumstances.
Workaround: To prevent this issue from occurring on your SQL Managed Instance, before executing any update commands, or in case you have already experienced this issue after update commands, go to the Overview page of your SQL managed instance in the Azure portal. Under Settings, select Microsoft Entra ID to access the SQL Managed Instance Microsoft Entra ID admin page. Verify if you can see the error message "Managed Instance needs a Service Principal to access Microsoft Entra ID. Click here to create a Service Principal". In case you've encountered this error message, select it, and follow the step-by-step instructions provided until this error has been resolved.
Limitation of manual failover via portal for failover groups
If a failover group spans across instances in different Azure subscriptions or resource groups, manual failover can't be initiated from the primary instance in the failover group.
Workaround: Initiate failover via the portal from the geo-secondary instance.
SQL Agent roles need explicit EXECUTE permissions for non-sysadmin logins
If non-sysadmin logins are added to any SQL Agent fixed database roles, there exists an issue in which explicit EXECUTE permissions need to be granted to three stored procedures in the master database for these logins to work. If this issue is encountered, the error message The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object <object_name> (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 229) is shown.
Workaround: Once you add logins to a SQL Agent fixed database role (SQLAgentUserRole, SQLAgentReaderRole, or SQLAgentOperatorRole), for each of the logins added to these roles, execute the following T-SQL script to explicitly grant EXECUTE permissions to the stored procedures listed.
USE [master];
GO
CREATE USER [login_name] FOR LOGIN [login_name];
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs TO [login_name];
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_is_starting TO [login_name];
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_notify TO [login_name];
In-memory OLTP memory limits aren't applied
The Business Critical service tier doesn't correctly apply max memory limits for memory-optimized objects in some cases. SQL Managed Instance might enable workload to use more memory for in-memory OLTP operations, which can affect availability and stability of the instance. In-memory OLTP queries that are reaching the limits might not fail immediately. The queries that use more in-memory OLTP memory fail sooner if they reach the limits.
Workaround: Monitor in-memory OLTP storage usage using SQL Server Management Studio to ensure that the workload isn't using more than the available memory. Increase the memory limits that depend on the number of vCores, or optimize your workload to use less memory.
Wrong error returned while trying to remove a file that isn't empty
SQL Server and SQL Managed Instance don't allow a user to drop a file that isn't empty. If you try to remove a nonempty data file using an ALTER DATABASE REMOVE FILE statement, the error Msg 5042 – The file '<file_name>' cannot be removed because it is not empty isn't immediately returned. SQL Managed Instance will keep trying to drop the file, and the operation will fail after 30 minutes with Internal server error.
Change service tier and create instance operations are blocked by ongoing database restore
An ongoing RESTORE statement, a Data Migration Service migration process, and built-in point-in-time restore, will block updating a service tier or resize of the existing instance and creating new instances until the restore process finishes.
The restore process blocks these operations on the managed instances and instance pools in the same subnet where the restore process is running. The instances in instance pools aren't affected. Create or change service tier operations don't fail or time out. They proceed once the restore process is completed or canceled.
Workaround: Wait until the restore process finishes, or cancel the restore process if the creation or update-service-tier operation has higher priority.
Resource Governor on Business Critical service tier might need to be reconfigured after failover
The Resource Governor feature that enables you to limit the resources assigned to the user workload might incorrectly classify some user workload after failover or a user-initiated change of service tier (for example, the change of max vCore or max instance storage size).
Workaround: Run ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR RECONFIGURE periodically or as part of a SQL Agent job that executes the SQL task when the instance starts if you are using Resource Governor.
Cross-database Service Broker dialogs must be reinitialized after service tier upgrade
Cross-database Service Broker dialogs will stop delivering the messages to the services in other databases after change service tier operation. The messages aren't lost, and they can be found in the sender queue. Any change of vCores or instance storage size in SQL Managed Instance causes a service_broke_guid value in sys.databases view to be changed for all databases. Any DIALOG created using a BEGIN DIALOG statement that references Service Brokers in other database stops delivering messages to the target service.
Workaround: Stop any activity that uses cross-database Service Broker dialog conversations before updating a service tier, and reinitialize them afterward. If there are remaining messages that are undelivered after a service tier change, read the messages from the source queue and resend them to the target queue.
Exceeding storage space with small database files
CREATE DATABASE, ALTER DATABASE ADD FILE, and RESTORE DATABASE statements might fail because the instance can reach the Azure Storage limit.
Each General Purpose instance of SQL Managed Instance has up to 35 TB of storage reserved for Azure Premium Disk space. Each database file is placed on a separate physical disk. Disk sizes can be 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, or 4 TB. Unused space on the disk isn't charged, but the total sum of Azure Premium Disk sizes can't exceed 35 TB. In some cases, a managed instance that doesn't need 8 TB in total might exceed the 35 TB Azure limit on storage size due to internal fragmentation.
For example, a General Purpose instance of SQL Managed Instance might have one large file that's 1.2 TB in size placed on a 4-TB disk. It also might have 248 files that are 1 GB each and that are placed on separate 128-GB disks. In this example:
- The total allocated disk storage size is 1 x 4 TB + 248 x 128 GB = 35 TB.
- The total reserved space for databases on the instance is 1 x 1.2 TB + 248 x 1 GB = 1.4 TB.
This example illustrates that under certain circumstances, due to a specific distribution of files, an instance of SQL Managed Instance might reach the 35-TB limit that's reserved for an attached Azure Premium Disk, when you might not expect it to.
In this example, existing databases continue to work and can grow without any problem as long as new files aren't added. New databases can't be created or restored because there isn't enough space for new disk drives, even if the total size of all databases doesn't reach the instance size limit. The error that's returned in that case isn't clear.
You can identify the number of remaining files by using system views. If you reach this limit, try to empty and delete some of the smaller files by using the DBCC SHRINKFILE statement or switch to the Business Critical tier, which doesn't have this limit.
GUID values shown instead of database names
Several system views, performance counters, error messages, XEvents, and error log entries display GUID database identifiers instead of the actual database names. Don't rely on these GUID identifiers because they might be replaced with actual database names in the future.
Workaround: Use sys.databases view to resolve the actual database name from the physical database name, specified in the form of GUID database identifiers:
SELECT name AS ActualDatabaseName,
physical_database_name AS GUIDDatabaseIdentifier
FROM sys.databases
WHERE database_id > 4;
CLR modules and linked servers sometimes can't reference a local IP address
CLR modules in SQL Managed Instance and linked servers or distributed queries that reference a current instance sometimes can't resolve the IP of a local instance. This error is a transient issue.
Transaction scope on two databases within the same instance isn't supported
(Resolved in March 2020) The TransactionScope class in .NET doesn't work if two queries are sent to two databases within the same instance under the same transaction scope:
using (var scope = new TransactionScope())
{
using (var conn1 = new SqlConnection("Server=quickstartbmi.neu15011648751ff.database.windows.net;Database=b;User ID=myuser;Password=mypassword;Encrypt=true"))
{
conn1.Open();
SqlCommand cmd1 = conn1.CreateCommand();
cmd1.CommandText = string.Format("insert into T1 values(1)");
cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
using (var conn2 = new SqlConnection("Server=quickstartbmi.neu15011648751ff.database.windows.net;Database=b;User ID=myuser;Password=mypassword;Encrypt=true"))
{
conn2.Open();
var cmd2 = conn2.CreateCommand();
cmd2.CommandText = string.Format("insert into b.dbo.T2 values(2)"); cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
scope.Complete();
}
Workaround (not needed since March 2020): Use SqlConnection.ChangeDatabase(String) to use another database in a connection context instead of using two connections.
No resolution
Differential backups aren't taken when an instance is linked to SQL Server
When you configure a link between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance, automated full and transaction log backups are taken on the managed instance, whether or not it's in the primary role. However, differential backups aren't currently taken, when can lead to longer than expected restore times.
Increased number of system logins used for transactional replication
Azure SQL Managed Instance service is creating system login for purposes of transactional replication. This login can be found in SSMS (in Object explorer, under Security, Logins) or in system view sys.syslogins. Login name format looks like 'DBxCy\WF-abcde01234QWERT', and the login has public server role. Under certain conditions, this login is recreated, and due to a fault in the system previous login isn't deleted. This can lead to increased number of logins. These logins don't represent a security threat. They can be safely ignored. These logins shouldn't be deleted because at least one of them is being used for transactional replication.
Microsoft Entra logins and users aren't supported in SSDT
SQL Server Data Tools don't fully support Microsoft Entra logins and users.
Impersonation of Microsoft Entra login types isn't supported
Impersonation using EXECUTE AS USER or EXECUTE AS LOGIN of the following Microsoft Entra principals isn't supported:
- Aliased Microsoft Entra users. The following error is returned in this case:
15517. - Microsoft Entra logins and users based on Microsoft Entra applications or service principals. The following errors are returned in this case:
15517and15406.
Transactional replication must be reconfigured after geo-failover
If transactional replication is enabled on a database in a failover group, the SQL Managed Instance administrator must clean up all publications on the old primary and reconfigure them on the new primary after a failover to another region occurs. For more information, see Replication.
tempdb structure and content is re-created
The tempdb database is always split into 12 data files, and the file structure can't be changed. The maximum size per file can't be changed, and new files can't be added to tempdb. The tempdb database is always re-created as an empty database when the instance starts or fails over, and any changes made in tempdb aren't preserved.
Error logs aren't persisted
Error logs that are available in SQL Managed Instance aren't persisted, and their size isn't included in the maximum storage limit. Error logs might be automatically erased if failover occurs. There might be gaps in the error log history because SQL Managed Instance was moved several times on several virtual machines.
Temporary instance inaccessibility using the failover group listener during scaling operation
Scaling managed instance sometimes requires moving the instance to a different virtual cluster, along with the associated service-maintained DNS records. If the managed instance participates in a failover group, the DNS record corresponding to its associated failover group listener (read-write listener, if the instance is the current geo-primary read-only listener, if the instance is the current geo-secondary) is moved to the new virtual cluster.
In the current scaling operation design, the listener DNS records are removed from the originating virtual cluster before the managed instance itself is fully migrated to the new virtual cluster, which in some situations can lead to prolonged time during which the instance's IP address can't be resolved using the listener. During this time, a SQL client attempting to access the instance being scaled using the listener endpoint can expect login failures with the following error message: "Error 40532: Cannot open server "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" requested by the login. The login failed. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 40532)".
The issue will be addressed through scaling operation redesign.
Resolved
Table for manual backups in msdb doesn't preserve the username
(Resolved in August 2023) We recently introduced support for auto backups in msdb, but the table doesn't currently contain username information.
Query on external table fails with not supported error message
Querying external table might fail with generic error message "Queries over external tables are not supported with the current service tier or performance level of this database. Consider upgrading the service tier or performance level of the database". The only type of external table supported in Azure SQL Managed Instance are PolyBase external tables (in preview). To allow queries on PolyBase external tables, you need to enable PolyBase on managed instance by running sp_configure command.
External tables related to Elastic Query feature of Azure SQL Database aren't supported in SQL Managed Instance, but creating and querying them wasn't explicitly blocked. With support for PolyBase external tables, new checks have been introduced, blocking querying of any type of external table in managed instance unless PolyBase is enabled.
If you're using unsupported Elastic Query external tables to query data in Azure SQL Database or Azure Synapse from your managed instance, you should use Linked Server feature instead. To establish Linked Server connection from SQL Managed Instance to SQL Database, follow instructions from this article. To establish Linked Server connection from SQL Managed Instance to SQL Synapse, check step-by-step instructions. Since configuring and testing Linked Server connection takes some time, you can use a workaround as a temporary solution to enable querying external tables related to Elastic Query feature:
Workaround: Execute the following commands (once per instance) that enable queries on external tables:
sp_configure 'polybase enabled', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
When using SQL Server authentication, usernames with '@' aren't supported
Usernames that contain the '@' symbol in the middle (for example, 'abc@xy') aren't able to sign in using SQL Server authentication.
Restore manual backup without CHECKSUM might fail
(Resolved in June 2020) In certain circumstances manual backup of databases that was made on a managed instance without CHECKSUM might fail to be restored. In such cases, retry restoring the backup until you're successful.
Workaround: Take manual backups of databases on managed instances with CHECKSUM enabled.
Agent becomes unresponsive upon modifying, disabling, or enabling existing jobs
In certain circumstances, modifying, disabling, or enabling an existing job can cause the agent to become unresponsive. The issue is automatically mitigated upon detection, resulting in a restart of the agent process.
Permissions on resource group not applied to SQL Managed Instance
When the SQL Managed Instance Contributor Azure role is applied to a resource group (RG), it's not applied to SQL Managed Instance and has no effect.
Workaround: Set up a SQL Managed Instance Contributor role for users at the subscription level.
SQL Agent jobs can be interrupted by Agent process restart
(Resolved in March 2020) SQL Agent creates a new session each time a job is started, gradually increasing memory consumption. To avoid hitting the internal memory limit, which would block execution of scheduled jobs, Agent process is restarted once its memory consumption reaches threshold. It might result in interrupting execution of jobs running at the moment of restart.
@query parameter not supported in sp_send_db_mail
The @query parameter in the sp_send_db_mail procedure doesn't work.
Misleading error message on Azure portal suggesting recreation of the Service Principal
The Active Directory admin page of Azure portal for Azure SQL Managed Instance might show the following error message, even though Service Principal already exists:
"Managed Instance needs a Service Principal to access Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). Click here to create a Service Principal"
You can neglect this error message if Service Principal for the managed instance already exists, and/or Microsoft Entra authentication on the managed instance works.
To check whether Service Principal exists, navigate to the Enterprise applications page on the Azure portal, choose Managed Identities from the Application type dropdown list, select Apply, and type the name of the managed instance in the search box. If the instance name shows up in the result list, Service Principal already exists and no further actions are needed.
If you already followed the instructions from the error message and selected the link from the error message, Service Principal of the managed instance has been recreated. In that case, assign Microsoft Entra ID read permissions to the newly created Service Principal in order for Microsoft Entra authentication to work properly. This can be done via Azure PowerShell by following instructions.
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Related content
For a list of SQL Managed Instance updates and improvements, see SQL Managed Instance service updates.
For updates and improvements to all Azure services, see Service updates.