We’re excited to introduce the new update policy SQL Server 2025 for Azure SQL Managed Instance. Now in preview, SQL Server 2025 update policy brings you the latest SQL engine innovation while retaining database portability to the new major release of SQL Server.
Update policy is an instance configuration option that provides flexibility and allows you to choose between instant access to the latest SQL engine features and fixed SQL engine feature set corresponding to 2022 and 2025 major releases of SQL Server. Regardless of the update policy chosen, you continue to benefit from Azure SQL platform innovation. New features and capabilities not related to the SQL engine – everything that makes Azure SQL Managed Instance a true PaaS service – are successively delivered to your Azure SQL Managed Instance resources.
Update policy for each modernization strategy
Always-up-to-date is a “perpetual” update policy. It has no end of lifetime and brings new SQL engine features to instances as soon as they are available in Azure. It enables you to always be at the forefront – to quickly adopt new yet production-ready SQL engine features, benefit from them in everyday operations and keep a competitive edge without waiting for the next major release of SQL Server.
In contrast, update policies SQL Server 2022 and SQL Server 2025 contain fixed sets of SQL engine features corresponding to the respective releases of SQL Server. They’re optimized to fulfill regulatory compliance, contractual, or other requirements for database/workload portability from managed instance to SQL Server. Over time, they get security patches, fixes, and incremental functional improvements in form of Cumulative Updates, but not new SQL engine features. They also have limited lifetime, aligned with the period of mainstream support of SQL Server releases. As the end of mainstream support for the update policy approaches, you should upgrade instances to a newer policy. Instances will be automatically upgraded to the next more recent policy at the end of mainstream support of their existing update policy.
What’s new in SQL Server 2025 update policy
In short, instances with update policy SQL Server 2025 benefit from all the SQL engine features that were gradually added to the Always-up-to-date policy over the past few years, and not available in the SQL Server 2022 update policy. Let’s name few most notable features, with complete list available in the update policy documentation:
- Optimized locking
- Mirroring in Fabric
- Regular expression functions
- Vector data type and functions
- JSON data type and aggregate functions
- Invoking HTTP REST endpoints
Best practices with Update policy feature
- Plan for the end of lifetime of SQL Server 2022 update policy if you’re using it today, and upgrade to a newer policy on your terms before automatic upgrade kicks in.
- Make sure to add update policy configuration to your deployment templates and scripts, so that you don’t rely on system defaults that may change in the future.
- Be aware that using some of the newly introduced features may require changing the database compatibility level.
Summary and next steps
Azure SQL Managed Instance just got new update policy SQL Server 2025. It brings the same set of SQL engine features that exist in the new SQL Server 2025 (currently in preview). Consider it if you have regulatory compliance, contractual, or other reasons for database/workload portability from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2025. Otherwise, use the Always-up-to-date policy which always provides the latest features and benefits available to Azure SQL Managed Instance.
For more details visit Update policy documentation. To stay up to date with the latest feature additions to Azure SQL Managed Instance, subscribe to the Azure SQL video channel, subscribe to the Azure SQL Blog feed, or bookmark What’s new in Azure SQL Managed Instance article with regular updates.
Microsoft