We're pleased to share a summary of the Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server feature updates and announcements from last month, as well as the latest roadmap of upcoming features!
March 2024 Live webinar
These feature updates are also covered in our Monthly Live Webinar on YouTube (Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel!), which streams the second Wednesday of every month, at 7:30 AM Pacific time. Below is a link to the session recording of the live webinar we delivered this week:
February 2024 updates and announcements
MySQL Discovery and Assessment in Azure Migrate - Private Preview
Azure Migrate provides a centralized hub for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises infrastructure such as servers, databases, and web applications hosted on physical environments to Azure PaaS and IaaS targets at scale. The Private Preview release of the new MySQL discovery and assessment feature in Azure Migrate enables customers to:
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Discover MySQL instances and their attributes in their environment,
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Assess their readiness to migrate to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, and
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Get recommendations about the right compute and storage SKU for hosting MySQL workloads on Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server, along with the corresponding costs.
Learn more: Demo video
Azure MySQL Import for external migrations from on-premises and VM workloads - Public Preview
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: Documentation | Demo video
Accelerated Logs - Public Preview: Latest Updates
In the past month, we've had several updates to this preview feature, to overcome some of the limitations that were present earlier:
- Previously limited to servers created after November 14th, the feature is now accessible in preview, for all existing Business Critical tier's standalone servers.
- Accelerated Logs now also supports Microsoft Entra ID.
- The feature has been extended to include three new regions: Japan East, Korea Central, and Poland Central.
- Performing a major version upgrade on your flexible server instance with the accelerated logs feature enabled is now supported.
Learn more: Documentation | Demo video
Latest feature roadmap
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Feature
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Description
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Release status
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Coming soon!
(Tentative*)
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Long Term Retention of Backups
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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.
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Private Preview
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Public Preview
in Q1 CY24
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On-demand backup and export
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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.
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Private Preview
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Public Preview
in Q1 CY24
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Error Logs (in Server Logs)
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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.
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Public Preview
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General Availability
in Q2 CY24
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Support for 32TB storage
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This feature provides you with the ability to expand the storage for your workloads using the Business-Critical service tier up to 32TB.
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Private Preview
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General Availability
in Q2 CY24
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Azure MySQL Import for external migrations
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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.
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Public Preview
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General Availability
in Q2 CY24
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MySQL Discovery & Assessment in Azure Migrate
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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. Learn more.
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Private Preview
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Public Preview
in Q2 CY24
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Microsoft Defender for Cloud
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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.
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Public Preview
in Q2 CY24
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Flexible maintenance options
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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:
Learn more.
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Public Preview
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General Availability
in Q2 CY24
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Near-zero downtime maintenance for HA servers
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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.
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Public Preview
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General Availability
in Q2 CY24
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Accelerated Logs
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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.
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Public Preview
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General Availability
in early Q3 CY24
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*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 our 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 | X.
