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Azure Database for MySQL Blog
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Azure Database for MySQL - 2023 Recap and 2024 Roadmap

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ShreyaAithal
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Jan 23, 2024

Over the past year, we’ve continued to make major enhancements to the Azure Database for MySQL product experience and to make Azure the best choice for running MySQL workloads in the cloud. We released a number of key features across Security, Performance, Availability, Management, and Developer Experiences, as well as Migrations. This post provides a summary of all the newly released features, key announcements, and initiatives launched in 2023, together with a peek at the upcoming feature roadmap for 2024. 

 

January 2024 Live Webinar

 

We also covered these updates in our recent Monthly Live Webinar on YouTube (Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel!). Below is a link to the webinar:

 

 

 

2023 Recap

 

Here is a pictorial summary of all the feature updates we released in 2023:

 

 

Security

Performance

Availability

  • Data Out Replication - General Availability: Concepts | Tutorial
  • Universal Cross Region Read Replica - General Availability: Concepts | Tutorial
  • Universal Geo Restore - General Availability: Concepts | Tutorial
  • Near-zero downtime maintenance for HA servers - Public Preview: Concepts
  • Long term retention of backups - Private Preview: Concepts and Demo video
  • On-demand backup and export - Private Preview: This feature provides you with the ability to export at-moment physical backup of the server to an Azure storage account (Azure blob storage) using an Azure CLI command.  After export, these backups can be used for data recovery, migration, data redundancy and availability, or auditing.
  • Support for 32TB storage - Private Preview: This feature provides you with the ability to expand the storage for your workloads using the Business-Critical service tier up to 32TB. 

Management

Developer Experiences

Migration

  • Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) Online Migration - General Availability: Tutorial | Demo video
  • MySQL Import CLI for Single Server to Flexible Server migrations - General Availability: Tutorial | Demo video
  • MySQL Import CLI for migrations from external sources - Private Preview: Tutorial | Demo video
  • In-place auto-migration from Single Server to Flexible Server: Concepts

Other key announcements and initiatives

  • New benchmark study by Principled Technologies: Azure Database for MySQL is an industry leader (compared to AWS RDS, Aurora and GCP) in performance and price-performance! Learn more: https://aka.ms/AzureMySQLBenchmarkBlog 

  • Azure Database for MySQL Contributor initiative: If you’re enthusiastic about Azure Database for MySQL and helping others to learn and do more with the service, join the Contributor initiative today and get recognized for your efforts through spotlights, collaboration opportunities and an exclusive badge! Learn more: https://aka.ms/mysql-contributors 

  • Azure Database for MariaDB is being retired on 19 Sep 2025. Consider migrating to Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server today! Learn more: https://aka.ms/mariadb-retirement 

  • New troubleshooting video series on YouTube: Learn tips and tricks you can use to anticipate and address potential issues in problem areas such as low performance, connectivity issues, replication latency, and database corruption. https://aka.ms/mysql-troubleshooting-series 

 

Roadmap for 2024

 

Feature

Description

Release status

Coming soon! 
(Tentative*)

Error Logs (in Server Logs)

This feature allows you to maintain MySQL error log files under Server logs feature and download them for up to seven days. These error logs will help you efficiently identify and troubleshoot performance and reliability issues, and proactively detect and respond to unauthorized access attempts, failed login attempts and other security-related events. Learn more.

Public Preview

 

General Availability
in Q1 CY24

 

Long Term Retention of Backups

Previously, Azure Database for MySQL allowed for retaining automated backups and on-demand backups up to 35 days. With Long Term Retention, you can now retain the backups up to 10 years, further aiding your audit and compliance needs. Learn more.

Private Preview

Public Preview
in Q1 CY24

On-demand backup and export

This feature provides you with the ability to export at-moment physical backup of the server to an Azure storage account (Azure blob storage) using an Azure CLI command.  After export, these backups can be used for data recovery, migration, data redundancy and availability, or auditing.

Private Preview

Public Preview
in Q1 CY24

Support for 32TB storage

This feature provides you with the ability to expand the storage for your workloads using the Business-Critical service tier up to 32TB. 

Private Preview

General Availability
in Q1 CY24

Azure MySQL Import for external migrations

Azure MySQL Import enables you to migrate your MySQL on-premises or Virtual Machine (VM) workload seamlessly to Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server. It uses a user-provided physical backup file and restores the source server's physical data files to the target server offering a simple and fast migration path. Based on user-inputs, it takes up the responsibility of provisioning your target Flexible Server and then restoring the user-provided physical backup of the source server stored in the Azure Blob storage account to the target Flexible Server instance. Learn more.

Private Preview

 

Public Preview

in Q1 CY24

 

MySQL Discovery & Assessment in Azure Migrate

With this functionality, you can use Azure Migrate to discover MySQL servers in your environment, assess them by identifying their compatibility for moving to Azure Database for MySQL, and receive compute and storage SKU recommendations along with their costs.

-

Private Preview

in Q1 CY24

 

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Support for Azure Database for MySQL in Microsoft Defender for Cloud will enable you to easily detect anomalous activities indicating unusual and potentially harmful attempts to access or exploit databases, without the need for advanced security monitoring systems or security experts.

-

Public Preview

in Q1 CY24

Accelerated Logs

This feature, available with the Business Critical service tier and designed for mission-critical workloads, provides a significant performance boost by minimizing latency, which results in faster query execution and more responsive interactions. Take advantage of an impressive increase in throughput of up to two times (2x) for your applications at no additional cost! Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q2 CY24

Flexible maintenance options

Building upon our existing system-managed and custom-managed maintenance windows, the following new flexible maintenance options aim to elevate user convenience and operational flexibility in server maintenance: 

  • Reschedule window: Tailor maintenance schedules to suit your business rhythm. 

  • On demand maintenance: Instantly initiate maintenance activities using the “Reschedule now” option.  

Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q2 CY24

Near-zero downtime maintenance for HA servers

 

This feature is designed to substantially reduce maintenance downtime for HA-enabled servers, ensuring that in most cases, maintenance downtime is expected to be between 40 to 60 seconds. This capability is pivotal for businesses that demand high availability and minimal interruption in their database operations. Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q2 CY24

*The roadmap features and dates are tentative and are subject to changes. Please stay tuned for continuous updates.

 

Conclusion

 

As we continue to work on new features and functionalities, your feedback is very critical for our improvement. If you wish to enroll in Private Preview for any of the above features, or if you have any suggestions for or queries about the service, email 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 | Twitter.

Updated Jan 23, 2024
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