Azure Data Studio is a cross-platform database tool for data professionals using the Microsoft family of on-premises and cloud data platforms on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
The February release of Azure Data Studio (version 1.48) includes several new features and enhancements, such as:
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Support for restores from URLs, including S3-compatible storage, via the restore dialog
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Query Editor now includes SPIDs in tab titles
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You can now specify a connection when launching ADS from the command line
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You can now enable Ledger when creating a database in the Create Database dialog
In this blog post, we will highlight some of these new features and how you can get started with them.
Making it easier to restore databases
As part of this release, we’ve included a number of enhancements to make it easier to restore databases.
Restore from URL via the restore dialog
We’ve added a user interface to build the restore commands to restore databases from Azure blob storage. The interface helps choose the appropriate container, generate a shared access signature and select a backup file. To get started with this, choose URL in the restore from dropdown, click the button to the right of Backup File Path, then fill in the required information and we will generate a script that you can run to do the restore.
Restore from S3-compatible storage via the restore dialog
Rounding out our database restore enhancements, we now have a a database stored on S3-compatible storage. To get started with this, choose S3 URL in the restore from dropdown, click the button to the right of Backup File Path, then fill in the required information and we will generate a script that you can run to do the restore.
Query Editor now includes SPIDs in tab titles
If you’ve worked with databases long enough, you’re sure to have encountered a few scenarios where a query running from your machine is causing slowness or blocking in one of the databases you look after. In the example above, I am trying to find out why my query running on SPID 77 has been running for minutes when it normally doesn’t even take a second. Here I can see that it’s me, I’m the problem and I can go right to the tab causing the problem instead of having to hunt through all of my open tabs checking for running queries and open transactions.
You can now specify a connection when launching ADS from the command line
A nice feature for those that like to mix the command line with the GUI, now you can open ADS from the command line and specify a connection so that Azure Data Studio will open right to the server that you want to be connected to.
You can now enable Ledger when creating a database in the Create Database dialog
Finally, the last enhancement to round out our highlights list is the ability to specify that a database is a ledger database right from the GUI. This not only saves time typing but it eliminates the window of opportunity for non-ledger tables to be created in a database before it can be configured as a ledger database.
We are excited to get his new functionality to you and can’t wait to hear your feedback!
If you are already an Azure Data Studio user, please update to Azure Data Studio 1.48. Within the application, simply select Help -> Check for Updates. If you’re new to Azure Data Studio head on over to the download and install Azure Data Studio page and we’ll walk you through the quickest way to get it installed.
If you’re looking for a specific fix or improvement, a complete list of improvements and fixes for this and previous versions can be found in the release notes.
Please let us know what you think of the new features. We love to hear your feedback!