Azure SQL Edge Update - September 2023

You only mention Apple silicon, but this decision also affects all ARM Single Board Computers (SBCs) such as Raspberry Pi or Jetson Orin.  SQL Edge should be able to run wherever Azure IoT Edge is supported:  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-edge/support?view=iotedge-1.4#linux-containers  

I could understand if you cut ARM32 support, but why cut ARM64 support for SQL Edge?

Wow, abandoning ARM64 where everyone else is doing the opposite.

Most of the embedded systems (so the target of Azure SQL Edge) are running ARM64, and more is coming due to the trend (better performances, lower consumptions)

Most of the .NET devs I know are now running on Apple Silicon and this is only going to be more with time, with SQL Server not being available anymore on that platform, I think we will be looking back at PostgreSQL or others alternative (SQL Server is the only major DBMS that doesn't support ARM64, even Oracle does)

This decision just doesn't make any sense, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

What's next ? Dropping ARM64 support on .NET ?

Is there an IoT processor more popular than the many, many variants of ARM AARCH64?

Mac be damned. The Internet of Things is ARM. 

Time to dump SQL Server, as it is clearly not the DB of IoT.

Bye, bye...

I'm very sorry to hear that you have dropped ARM64 support. There are other scenarios such as running a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central locally as a Docker container on a very energy efficient Surface 9 Pro with SQ3 processor (ARM64) or Lenovo ThinkPad X13.

You can find out more Business Central Container Helper GitHub Page: https://github.com/microsoft/navcontainerhelper

These Docker containers are used for development, support and consulting of the Microsoft ERP system.

Currently Docker Desktop isn't available for ARM64 on Windows either, only on WSL2. I'm currently looking into what is needed to enable this, as ARM64 is clearly the future for Windows Mobile devices due to its low power consumption.

Microsoft has also done a great job in providing Windows 11, Edge, Office, Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code as native ARM64 which perform very well. I'm not sure the x64 emulator is a good idea for SQL Server. SQL Server Management Studio 19 as a non-native ARM64 app is very, very slow on the Snapdragon 3cx, almost unusable.

I suspect SQL Server would be even worse.

Despite the lack of Docker Desktop on Windows-on-ARM, the Business Central Server has been ported to .NET 6 and 7 should be a problem. Older versions running on .NET Framework 4.8.1 are also very usable.

I too wanted to know why ARM64 is being discontinued.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-edge/support?view=iotedge-1.4#minimum-system-requirements

Azure IoT Edge runs great on devices as small as a Raspberry Pi3 to server grade hardware. Choosing the right hardware for your scenario depends on the workloads that you want to run. Making the final device decision can be complicated; however, you can easily start prototyping a solution on traditional laptops or desktops.

I believe there was a use case that it could run on a small device like a Raspberry Pi and utilize information from various sensor data connected to the small device.

How many cases of using Azure SQL Edge will remain when ARM64 support is removed?

Leveraging Docker Desktop support for x86/amd64 emulation is our recommendation for local SQL Server development on Apple silicon going forward, as this gives you the flexibility to run SQL 2017/2019/2022 and Azure SQL Edge AMD64 containers.

As of macOS 14 this is no longer a viable option. It seems Rosetta is now broken and regular SQL Server in Docker is not trustworthy at all. Random errors like "Transaction  was deadlocked on communication buffer resources with another process" and "severe error occurred, please disregard any result" are rampant. Switching to Azure SQL Edge make them all go away.

In other words the only working solution for Apple Silicon is currently ARM64 native Azure SQL Edge.

I only stumbled across this today, but I must admit I too am disappointed. I've been using Azure Edge on a RPi for some years, so it's really disappointing to hear that development has stopped. Just because ARM64 Macs have Parallels doesn't mean that other products that aren't Macs do. This effectively forces users into x86 architecture.

The irony is that Microsoft working with 3rd parties to relaunch Windows ARM64 devices; these new devices now won't be able to use SQL Server at all, as Parallels is a Mac "thing".

I can understand this from an executive decision making space ("well, we don't expect the Azure SQL Edge users will make full-fledged TSQL users, we're just selling more Macs"), but not a technical one, given aarch64's preeminence in the IoT space, and the fact that it would make sharing data in the enterprise trivial for Azure/MS shops.
Regarding the suggestion of running a full Windows VM or depending on an AMD64 container: Rosetta 2 support may only be available for a limited amount of time on macOS as well. 
It would seem Azure SQL Edge was a nice experiment, but giving up would be ceding the space to PostgreSQL, et. al. I really liked the functionality of Azure SQL Edge, but I've already downloaded and configured PostgreSQL to my liking. However, I hope in the future MS tries other bold, interesting and useful experiments. 

You say that the image will remain up, and it worked as of February. However, I can no longer power up the image and get a 500 server error when attempting to do so. Does anyone else see this? 

With the new Surface laptops targeting ARM64 architecture is only natural to have MSSQL databases supporting this architecture, it is clearly an strategic decision as all other major players are doing the same (e.g. Oracle 19c was released recently their support to ARM64 arch as well)