In this latest release, we’re excited to announce the return of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) capabilities in Preview, Maintenance Plans (Preview), and new features in the Modern connection dialog (Preview) experience. To try it all out, go to Help > Check for Updates in SSMS, or update via the Visual Studio Installer. If you don’t have SSMS 21 yet, you can learn more about downloading and installing it here. As always, please read our release notes to get the full list of features and bug fixes.
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) (Preview)
SSIS is now available in Preview for installation with SSMS 21.2.5. You can install it by selecting Modify in the Visual Studio Installer, adding the Business Intelligence workload, or from the Individual components tab if you only want SSIS. If you are updating a previously installed version of SSMS 21, after the update has finished installing you will need to go back to the Visual Studio Installer and add the SSIS component from the Modify workflow.
Add SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) (Preview) from the Workloads tab in the Visual Studio Installer.In SSMS 21.2.5 you have access to the following functionality supported by SSIS:
- SSISDB catalog management
- Executing and scheduling packages using SQL Server Agent Jobs
- Data import and export wizard
- Copy database wizard
Use SSMS to manage the SSISDB catalog – the repository for SSIS projects and packages which includes secure storage, package deployment, and efficient monitoring of execution logs. Automate your workflows using SQL Server Agent Jobs, perfect for scheduled or event-triggered package execution.
The Import and Export Wizard offers a guided, user-friendly way to move data between sources and destinations. And the Copy Database Wizard helps you copy or move one or more databases from one SQL Server instance to another using SSIS (Preview).
Maintenance Plans (Preview)
Maintenance plans are back! These make it easier to automate routine database tasks like backups, index maintenance, and integrity checks, all without writing custom scripts. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, you can set up recurring jobs to:
- Back up your databases
- Update statistics
- Perform database integrity checks
To get started, connect to your server in SSMS, expand the Management folder in Object Explorer, right-click Maintenance Plans, and select New Maintenance Plan. You can also use the Maintenance Plan Wizard to walk through creating a plan that runs on a schedule via SQL Server Agent.
Create a new Maintenance Plan (Preview) from Object Explorer > Management > Maintenance Plans.
Modern Connection Dialog (Preview) Updates
We’ve continued to add new features to the Modern connection dialog (Preview) based on community feedback and suggestions. In this release we added a Browse tab, providing an easier way to explore your local, network, and Azure resources. The availability to browse registered servers (local server groups) and other cloud resources like Fabric SQL DBs and DWs will be added in a future release.
When signed in to Azure, you can select which subscriptions to display. Selecting a resource will automatically populate the connection properties with the connection details.
Thank you to the SSMS community for helping us identify where the connection dialog experience can be improved! This release, we reinstated the ability to add firewall rules directly from SSMS, See Modern Connection dialog cannot add firewall exceptions.
As always, we hope you are enjoying this latest version of SSMS. We’re grateful for your feedback – keep it coming!
Microsoft
