Azure SQL News Update: November 2022

Anna Hoffman · ‎Nov 16 2022

Today Data Exposed goes live at 9AM PT on LearnTV. Every 4 weeks, we’ll do a News Update. We’ll include product updates, videos, blogs, etc. as well as upcoming events and things to look out for. If you missed the episode, you can find them all at https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT. This month we’ll recap all the updates and announcements in the database space since late September.

You can read this blog to get all the updates and references mentioned in the show. Here’s the November 2022 update.

By the way, this was a special episode, because it also was a session at the PASS Data Community Summit. If you missed the live stream, you won’t want to miss the recording: https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT. Here are the awesome guests and topics we had on the show:

Niko Neugebauer, Azure SQL Managed Instance
Michael Howard, Security
Kate Smith, Query Performance
Bob Ward, SQL Server 2022
Muazma Zahid, Azure SQL Database
Carlos Robles, Migrations
Dinakar Nethi and Dhananjay Mahajan, Azure Arc and Hybrid
Patrick LeBlanc and Adam Saxton, Power BI
Erin Stellato, SQL Experiences and Tools
Michael Howard, Security

Product updates @ PASS Data Community Summit

Lots of updates to cover! Let’s start with the announcements for Azure SQL and SQL Server that have happened at PASS so far. Of course, the most anticipated announcement has been the general availability (GA) release of SQL Server 2022! Bob Ward came on the show to tell us about this moment and the things he’s most excited about. We also released the GA version of Azure Data Studio 1.40. A lot landed in Azure Data Studio 1.40, including Table Designer GA and Query Plan Viewer GA, but you should check out the release blogs to learn all about the updates!

These next updates are hot off the press! Azure Synapse Link for SQL went GA, and we announced External REST endpoints integration in public preview. For Azure SQL Database, we announced restore progress as GA, and Hyperscale Import-Export Private Link as GA. Azure SQL Managed Instance announced cross-subscription PITR, Log Replay Service, Transactional replication, and Backup portability with SQL Server 2022 as GA. The SQL Managed Instance team also announced a TON of features in public preview: zone redundancy for Business Critical, fast instance create, start/stop, MS DTC support, license-free GeoDR, backup transparency, and cross instance database move. Niko Neugebauer came on the show to tell us all about the updates.

Product updates

Yes, we announced a lot at PASS, but we’ve also released a lot between our last news update and PASS, which we don’t want you to miss.

On the Azure SQL side, quite a few things went GA which I think you’ll be excited about. The first, across both DB and MI is Query Store hints. Query Store hints provide an easy-to-use method for shaping query plans and behavior without changing application code. This is great when you need to go beyond the Query Optimizer and optimize queries manually for specific conditions. Learn more about Query Store hints (also in SQL Server 2022).

Drilling into GA updates for Azure SQL Managed Instance, the team released zone redundant storage (ZRS) for backups, memory optimized premium series hardware and 16TB storage in Business Critical, and new TempDB configurations that increase performance. The MI team is always listening to what you all say you need, so it’s no surprise to see all these great updates! The TempDB updates allow you to configure the number of TempDB files and their growth increments, and they are persisted upon things like server restart, failover, or scaling.

Looking at GA for Azure SQL Database, the Hyperscale team has lots of things to share. Hyperscale released ZRS for backups, in addition to import and export operations (previously only available in other Azure SQL Database tiers), and reverse migration to the general purpose tier. The last one is huge, because prior to this release, moving from a general purpose database to a Hyperscale database was a one-way street. The reason is that we re-architected Hyperscale to be a limitless cloud-native database, with a very different architecture. With this recent announcement, customers can move to Hyperscale knowing that, if for whatever reason, they want to go back to general purpose, they can. I am anticipating a lot more folks will be checking out Hyperscale! Let me know what you think. The final GA announcement for Azure SQL Database was higher limits (up to 80 vCores in select regions) for Azure SQL Database serverless, giving you even more flexibility in auto-scaling to meet demand.

OK let’s switch gears and recap the latest public preview features across Azure SQL. Last week, we announced preview support for the Azure SQL trigger for Azure Functions and Java and PowerShell support for Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions. With the new trigger, customers with nearly any SQL database can enable change tracking and develop event-driven applications on Azure Functions. In the public preview for Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions, many enterprises have started working with C#, JavaScript, and Python, but we are expanding to include much-requested support for Java and PowerShell.

Moving on to the momentum with Hyperscale, we’re closing the final gaps between Hyperscale and the other service tiers by introducing long-term backup retention (LTR) for Hyperscale. Across Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance, we have two interesting new capabilities related to approximate percentile and table constraints. Approximate query processing was introduced to enable operations across large data sets where responsiveness is more critical than absolute precision (like telemetry dashboards, anomaly detection). The new native implementation for the APPPROX_PERCENTILE function will calculate the approximated value at a provided percentile from a distribution of numeric values. The second update is new T-SQL for resumable add table constraints, where the resumable operations allow index operations to be executed while the table is online (ONLINE=ON) and several other things (e.g., pause and restart an index create or rebuild, recover from index create/rebuild failures, enable truncation of transaction logs during index create/rebuild).

Some of you may already be familiar with the Database Migration Assessment for Oracle extension in Azure Data Studio, which helps you easily assess and migrate to Azure SQL. We recently expanded it (in preview) to also help you if your migration target is Azure Database for PostgreSQL.

Other database updates

Starting in 2022 we’re trying to keep you updated on what’s going on with other database services at Microsoft, as we understand that oftentimes you’re using more than one service. Here are the updates I gathered from October and November 2022 so far.

Cosmos DB

Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise

General availability: Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB data plane RBAC

Public preview: Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB Gremlin API

General availability: 16MB limit per document in Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB

Generally available: Azure Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL

General availability: Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server with AMD compute

Public preview: MySQL extension for Azure Data Studio

Public preview: Azure Database for MySQL - Flexible Server auto scale IO

Action required: Migrate to Azure Database for MySQL Flexible Server by 16 September 2024

General availability: Backup and restore in Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server

Public preview: Azure AD authentication with Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server

Support for PostgreSQL version 11 in Azure Database PostgreSQL Single Server ends on 9 November 2024...

Public preview: Read replicas for Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server

Public preview: Azure Active Directory for Azure Database for PostgreSQL – Flexible Server

Public preview: Infrastructure encryption using customer managed key for PostgreSQL – Flexible Serve...

Upgrade your Azure Cache for Redis instances to use Redis version 6 by 30 June 2023

Public preview: Improved passive geo-replication for Azure Cache for Redis

Videos

We continued to release new and exciting episodes this month. Here is the list, or you can just see the playlist we created with all the episodes!

Sergey Khimchenko: Insider Series: Architect your Azure Data Estate with Well-Architected Framework
Erin Stellato: How to Analyze Query Plans in Azure Data Studio
[MVP Edition] Karen Lopez: Build Confidence in Your Data with Ledger Databases and Tables
Lior Kamrat: Announcing Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance Landing Zone Accelerator
[SQL Insider Series] Laura Grob: How and Why to Virtualize your Data in Azure SQL Managed Instance
Drew Skwiers-Koballa: Develop Apps with Azure SQL Database for Free
Sravani Saluru: How to use Windows Auth with Azure SQL Managed Instance
[MVP Edition] John Miner: Full Text Indexing Basics with Azure SQL
Annabel Bradford, Bob Ward: SQL Server 2022 @ PASS Data Community Summit

We’ve also had some great Data Exposed Live sessions this year. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see them all and get notified when we stream. Here are some of the recent live streams.

Azure SQL News Update: August, live from Microsoft Studios
May the 4^th be with Azure SQL (News Updates): this was a Star Wars-themed episode and it was so fun! Check it out for costumes, themed demos and slides, and fun!
Azure SQL & SQL Server 2022: Intelligent Database Futures
Azure SQL News Update: 2021 Year in Review
Welcome to SQL Server 2022 Live!

Blogs

As always, our team is busy writing blogs to share with you all. Blogs contain announcements, tips and tricks, deep dives, and more. Here’s the list I have of SQL-related topics you might want to check out.

Data Exposed

On Data Exposed, we’re always explaining topics, demonstrating features, discussing the latest news, etc. related to Azure Data through live and on-demand episodes. Check out any of the series available now – and note we’re always adding new topics and episodes:

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/dataexposed-sqlserver2022
SQL Insiders: https://aka.ms/sqlinsiderseries

Plus find new, on-demand Data Exposed episodes released every Thursday at https://aka.ms/dataexposedyt

Microsoft Learn module of the month

This month, we had a big announcement for SQL Server 2022! I thought you might want the opportunity to get hands on (for free), so this month I am highlighting the brand-new module Introduction to SQL Server 2022 (https://aka.ms/learnsqlserver2022). This module, written by Bob Ward, takes you through all the new scenarios (including some awesome hands-on exercises). I can’t think of a better way to get started with SQL Server 2022 than this module. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Anna’s pick of the month!

OK this was my pick of the month last month but there were way too many awesome things for me to pick, so I’m just doubling down on videos with my dog (#sorrynotsorry). The goal is to share database tips in a short, consumable fashion while I walk my dog. Check it out, follow along, and let me know what you think! It’s running on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@analyticanna), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/analytic.anna/reels/), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/AnalyticAnna).

Until next time…

That’s it for now! Be sure to check back next month for the latest updates. Next month is special as we’ll do our 2022 Year in Review. 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 time, on Data Exposed :)

--Anna and Marisa

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Azure SQL News Update: November 2022