Maintenance window for Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance now in preview

[scott_kim]

We are excited to announce the preview release of maintenance windows for Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance.  Additional control and transparency into monthly maintenance events have been a common feedback from customers of Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance.  With the preview release of maintenance windows, you can now choose from predefined time slots for maintenance and set up alerts to be notified of upcoming maintenance events.

Gain more predictability with maintenance windows 

By default, all Azure SQL databases and managed instances are updated only during 5PM to 8AM local times daily to avoid any potential peak business hours interruptions.  During an Azure SQL maintenance event, databases are fully available but can be subject to short failover within availability SLA as resource reconfigurations are required in some cases. 

You can further adjust the planned maintenance events to a time suitable to your Azure SQL resource by choosing from two additional SQL maintenance window options.   

• Weekday window, 10PM to 6AM local time Monday – Thursday
• Weekend window, 10PM to 6AM local time Friday - Sunday

Once the maintenance window selection is made, all planned maintenance events will only occur during the window of your choice. 

Enable SQL maintenance windows on newly created and existing Azure SQL resources 

Maintenance window can be set up for newly created  as well as existing Azure SQL resources using the Azure portal, CLI and PowerShell. More information on how to set up maintenance windows can be found here.

Enable alerts on planned maintenance events via advance notification 

Alerts can be configured for Azure SQL Database to notify customers on upcoming planned maintenance events 24 hours in advance. More information on how to set up advance notification can be found here.

What is the pricing and eligibility for SQL maintenance windows?   

The Azure SQL maintenance window and maintenance alerts are available and free of charge for the following subscription offer types: Pay-As-You-Go, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), Microsoft Enterprise, or Microsoft Customer Agreement.

Some limitations apply

• The Hyperscale service tier is not currently supported on Azure SQL maintenance window but planned later in 2021.  
• Additional exclusions include Gen4 vCore general purpose & business critical offers; Basic, S0, S1 offers; M-series, FsV2-series, DC-series hardware offers.
• Azure SQL Managed Instance maintenance alerts are not currently supported but planned later in 2021.

Available regions for preview

The SQL maintenance window preview is available in a number of supported regions with more Azure regions planned over the remainder of the year.  

To learn more,

https://aka.ms/SQLMaintenanceWindow               

https://aka.ms/SQLAdvNotification                           

[Johannes_Vink]

@scott_kim Looking forward to the functionality, although we've not noticed much around the maintenance in the night. But... we have a small data warehouse hosted on Azure SQL DB, with nightly processing. The maintenance windows are focused on the nights...

[scott_kim]

Yes, we are collecting feedback around desired windows and we aim to make additional options available over time.

Ability for customers  to configure windows is something that we are working on as well for certain offers.  please stay tuned for more updates towards summer but in meantime, please keep feedback coming.

thanks,

[MNashDOG]

Can you please add some maintenance windows that are not covering the nights?

We have a UK based customer who's primary customer base comes online at 4pm and finishes around 12am in teh week days, and is active 9am -12am on weekends, so all 3 windows currently proposed are unsuitable.
We would need a window that is something like 2am-9am and set to weekdays.

This would also not be great for our other customers who have very restrictive maintenance windows.