Azure SQL Blog

4 MIN READ

Azure SQL News Update: A Year in Review

Microsoft

Dec 14, 2022

Read the 2022 recap of all the Azure SQL and SQL Server news or catch the live episode! If you missed the episode, you can find them all at https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT. This one also features a special Ask Me Anything with product group members.

You can read this blog to get all the updates and references mentioned in the show (including the awesome speakers we had on). Since we did things a little differently this month, here’s the special December update which contains the year in review (i.e., all the big updates this year):

SQL Server on Azure VMs

Public Preview

General Availability

· Configure availability group through the Azure portal

· Azure AD with SQL Server VMs

· Least privileged permission model for SQL Server IaaS Agent extension

· SQL Server on Azure confidential VMs

· Azure CLI for SQL best practices assessment

· Configure your tempdb settings, such as the number of files, initial size, and autogrowth ratio for an existing SQL Server instance by using the Azure portal

· Ebdsv5-series

· SQL Server VM security best practices

· Move end-of-support SQL Server 2012 to Azure Virtual Machines and save

· SQL best practices assessment for SQL Server on Azure VMs

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Public Preview

General Availability

· Advance notifications

· Zone redundancy for Business Critical

· Fast instance create

· Stop-start

· MS DTC

· License-free GeoDR

· Cross-instance database move

· Database copy and move

· Maintenance Window

· Cross-subscription PITR

· Log Replay Service

· Transactional replication

· Backup portability with SQL Server 2022

· Zone redundant storage (ZRS) for backups

· Backup transparency

· Memory optimized premium series hardware and 16TB storage in Business Critical

· New TempDB configurations for increased performance

· Windows Authentication support with Azure Active Directory and Kerberos

· Expanded support to standard editions of SQL Server 2019 with link feature

· Resumable database restore

· Data virtualization

· Backup restore speed improvement

· Principled Technologies benchmark study

· Managed Instance link

· Service Broker messaging exchange with SQL Servers anywhere

Azure SQL Database

Public Preview

General Availability

· Advance notifications

· Long-term backup retention (LTR) for Hyperscale

· External REST Endpoints Integration

· New built-in server-level roles

· Microsoft Purview access policies

· Create and utilize AAD server principals from master

· Backup history available in a DMV

· Hyperscale point-in-time-restore for up to 35 days

· Premium-series hardware options for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale

· Maintenance Window

· Zone Redundancy for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale

· Azure Synapse Link for SQL

· Reverse migration to the general purpose for Hyperscale

· Higher limits (up to 80 vCores in select regions) for Azure SQL Database serverless

· Named Replicas for Hyperscale

· Geo-replication and auto-failover groups for Hyperscale

· Local development experience with Azure SQL Database emulator

· Change Data Capture

· Increased data storage limits within 8-10 vCore range

· Zone redundancy for General purpose tier

· Ledger

· Restore progress granularity

Updates across Azure SQL

Public Preview

General Availability

· Azure SQL trigger for Azure Functions

· Java and PowerShell support for Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions

· Automatic key rotation for customer managed keys (CMK)

· SDK-style SQL projects

· Import a BACPAC file to create a database

· 128 vCore provisioned compute size on Azure SQL Standard-series (Gen5)

· Query Store hints

· New native implementation for the APPPROX_PERCENTILE function

· New T-SQL for resumable add table constraints

· Updates to SqlPackage, DacFx, and GitHub sql-action

· Revamped SQL Permission system for Principle of Least Privilege and external policies

· Leverage an assignment of a server or instance identity with user-assigned managed identity in Azure Active Directory

· JSON Enhancements

· Microsoft Information Protection labels for Azure SQL native data classification

· mssql-django driver

· sys.dm_os_out_of_memory_events

· DATE_BUCKET

Migrations

Public Preview

General Availability

· Database Migration Assessment for Oracle extension in Azure Data Studio

· Azure SQL Database offline migrations in Azure SQL Migration extension

· PowerShell and Azure CLI modules for Azure SQL Migration extension

· Azure Migrate Business Case

· Azure Migrate assessment for migration to Azure SQL

· Azure SQL Migration extension for Azure Data Studio

· Migrate standalone instance to SQL Server on Azure VMs using distributed AG

· Migrate entire availability group to SQL Server on Azure VMs using distributed AG

Azure Arc-enabled data services

Public Preview

General Availability

· Database as a Resource for SQL Server – Azure Arc

· Business Critical tier for Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance

· Pay as you go pricing for Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server

· Active Directory for Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance

SQL Server

Last but certainly not least, the biggest announcement in the SQL Server space was, of course, the general availability announcement of SQL Server 2022. We’ve chatted about it a ton on the show and in blogs, but the link above will get you to all the resources you might be interested in – including the Data Exposed SQL Server 2022 series (shameless plug)!

Also, if you want to see the keynote where the announcement was made (includes some great demos), it is now online for free at https://aka.ms/pass22keynote.

Anna’s Pick of the Month

My pick of the month is Data Exposed! Marisa Mathews and I are working constantly to get you the information you need when you need it from the SQL Engineering team. So, as we round out the year, Marisa came on to tell us about all the series you might’ve missed:

Azure SQL Security: http://aka.ms/dataexposed-security
Azure SQL Virtual Machines: https://aka.ms/azuresqlvmyt
Migrating to SQL: https://aka.ms/migrating-to-sql
SQL Server 2022: https://aka.ms/sqlserver2022series
SQL Server 2022 Preview: https://aka.ms/dataexposed-sqlserver2022
SQL Insiders: https://aka.ms/sqlinsiderseries
Data Exposed @ PASS Data Community Summit: https://aka.ms/dataexposed-passsummit2022

Until next time…

That’s it for now! Be sure to check back next month for the latest updates. We also release new episodes on Thursdays at 9AM PT and new #MVPTuesday episodes on the last Tuesday of every month at 9AM PT at aka.ms/DataExposedyt.

Having trouble keeping up? Be sure to follow us on twitter to get the latest updates on everything, @AzureSQL.

We hope to see you next YEAR, on Data Exposed 🙂

--Anna and Marisa

Updated Dec 16, 2022

Version 2.0

azure sql

azure sql database

azure sql managed instance

sql server

sql server on azure vms

Anna Hoffman

Microsoft