We're excited to share a summary of the Azure Database for MySQL updates from the last couple of months.
Join us live on our YouTube channel on August 12, 2025, for an exclusive webinar where we’ll dive deeper into these updates and answer your questions. [Watch it live here.]
Highlights:
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Dedicated Azure Standard Load Balancer in Azure Database for MySQL (Public Preview)
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Input and Output Bindings for Azure Functions (General Availability)
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New Regions: Indonesia Central, Chile Central and Malaysia West
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Enable Auto-Scale of IOPS for Faster Restore and Replica Provisions
MCP Server for Azure Database for MySQL
We are thrilled to introduce an MCP Server for integrating your AI models with data hosted in Azure Database for MySQL. By utilizing this server, you can effortlessly connect any AI application that supports MCP to your MySQL flexible server (using either MySQL password-based authentication or Microsoft Entra authentication methods), enabling you to provide your business data as meaningful context in a standardized and secure manner. Learn more.
One-click Self-Heal (Public Preview)
The Self-Heal feature in Azure Database for MySQL empowers customers to resolve common server issues independently, without needing to open a support case. It provides a one-click repair experience that helps restore service health quickly and safely. Learn more.
Extended Support for older MySQL versions
As part of our ongoing commitment to customer success and operational continuity, we are introducing Extended Support for Azure Database for MySQL as a paid offering designed to help customers continue running workloads on older MySQL versions with confidence, even after community support ends. Learn more.
Accelerated logs in General Purpose service tier
Accelerated logs are now supported in the General Purpose service tier of Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server. Previously available only in the Business Critical tier, this feature enhances performance and reduces transaction latency. Accelerated logs feature in General Purpose tier is available at an additional cost. Learn more.
Dedicated Azure Standard Load Balancer in Azure Database for MySQL (Public Preview)
Announcing the public preview of a dedicated Azure Standard Load Balancer in Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server for high availability-enabled servers. With this feature, a high availability configuration gets the benefit of a dedicated Standard Load Balancer, including low latency, high throughput network traffic distribution of front-end requests to backend servers. With Standard Load Balancer managing the MySQL data traffic path, you can enjoy a more optimized failover time for high availability servers. If you want to enable an SLB for your HA server, file a support ticket with Azure Support.
Input and Output Bindings for Azure Functions (General Availability)
Azure Database for MySQL Input and Output bindings for Azure Functions are now generally available, enabling seamless, declarative integration with MySQL databases. These bindings eliminate the need for manual connection or SQL logic, supporting both in-process and isolated worker models across C#, Python, Java, and JavaScript. Developers can now build event-driven, serverless apps that read, modify, and write MySQL data with minimal configuration and maximum flexibility. Learn more.
New Regions: Indonesia Central, Chile Central and Malaysia West
New regions rollout! Azure Database for MySQL flexible server is now available in Indonesia Central, Chile Central and Malaysia West, giving customers in and around these regions lower latency and data residency options. For the full list of supported regions, visit: Azure Regions
Custom Port Support (Public Preview)
Azure Database for MySQL (Flexible Server) now supports custom port selection (25001–26000) during server creation for VNet-injected servers. This enables better compliance with network security policies and integration with legacy systems, while supporting restore, HA, and read replicas. Learn more.
Automate scheduling of on-demand backups
Azure Database for MySQL now supports the ability to schedule on-demand backups using automation tasks. This feature gives you greater control and flexibility in managing on-demand backups for your Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server instances. Learn more about how to schedule an automation task here.
Configure backup interval for automated backups
Azure Database for MySQL now supports the ability to configure backup interval for the automatic backups taken by the system to improve restore speed. This new feature optimizes the process by introducing more frequent snapshots, thereby reducing the number of binlogs that need to be replayed for point-in-time restore and minimizing overall restore time. Learn more about the feature here.
Auto Initialization of Time Zones
Time zones are automatically loaded during server creation, removing the need for customers to manually execute the mysql.az_load_timezone stored procedure afterwards to load the time zone. For more information, refer to the server parameter details for time_zone
Enable Auto-Scale of IOPS for Faster Restore and Replica Provisions
Azure Database for MySQL now supports the ability to enable autoscaling of IOPS for both the source and target servers during restore operations and replica provisioning workflows. This enhancement helps accelerate the restore and replica provisioning process by temporarily boosting IOPS to meet the performance demands of these operations. Once provisioning is complete, you can disable the autoscale IOPS setting. To learn more, visit Point-in-time restore.
Key maintenance experience enhancements
Virtual Canary: Virtual Canary is intended for non-production workloads that want to validate updates early. Servers under this policy receive updates ahead of general availability and do not follow the standard update cadence - there’s no guaranteed 30-day interval and no 7-day advance notice. Burstable SKU servers are enrolled in the Virtual Canary policy by default.
Maintenance Batches: Our custom maintenance feature has long been there and is one of the favorite features for our customers. Staged custom maintenance features provide custom advanced control, you can assign the server to a batch (Batch 1 or Batch 2) to help stagger maintenance across environments like TEST and PROD.
Maintenance Rollout Status Check (public preview): Each maintenance event includes a Tracking ID. Clicking this ID opens a detailed view of all servers in your subscription that are part of the same maintenance rollout. This gives you a consolidated overview across your fleet - no need to check each server individually or rely solely on email notifications.
Learn more.
Stay Connected
We look forward to your feedback as you explore these enhancements and continue building with Azure Database for MySQL. If you have any suggestions or queries about our service, please let us know by emailing us at AskAzureDBforMySQL@service.microsoft.com.
To learn more about what's new with Flexible Server, see What's new in Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server.
Stay tuned for more updates and announcements by following us on social media: YouTube | LinkedIn | X.
Take care, and thanks for being part of our community!
Microsoft