SQL Spotlight: Ignite 2025
Ignite 2025: Your SQL Guide Microsoft Ignite 2025 is less than 30 days away! Whether you’re a data professional, DBA, or developer, this event is your chance to dive in, expand knowledge, and connect with fellow SQL experts. Join Microsoft leaders and customers as they share best practices, practical insights from across the SQL portfolio. Be the first to hear the latest releases, dive in with hands-on labs, and new learning paths to grow your skill set. Grab your coffee and add the following sessions to your schedule! Be sure to check back for more updates: 5 SQL Sessions You Don’t Want to Miss (in person and online) 1. BRK124: SQL Server 2025: The AI-ready enterprise database Tue, Nov 18 | 3:45 PM – 4:30 PM PST | Learn how SQL Server 2025 is redefining what’s possible for enterprise data with AI integration, native JSON, REST APIs, and vector search. 2. BRK156: How Levi’s is transforming their IT estate with Azure Wed, Nov 19 | 2:45 PM - 3:30 PM PST Hear how American icon Levi’s transformed its 150 year-business by migrating Windows Server, SQL Server, SAP and Oracle workloads to Azure. 3. BRK126: Build scalable AI apps with Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Tue, Nov 18 | 5:00 PM – 5:45 PM PST | Learn how Azure SQL Hyperscale together with AI Foundry delivers a more modern, secure, scalable solution for building AI apps. Industrial IT company Hexagon and investment company, BlackRock will join us onstage to share their experience, demos and more. 4. BRK125: Meet the performance-enhanced next-gen Azure SQL Managed Instance Wed, Nov 19 | 10:15 AM – 11:00 AM PST | This session is all about to get the most from your SQL Server workloads with Azure SQL Managed Instance. 5. BRK220: SQL database in Fabric: The unified database for AI apps and analytics Wed, Nov 19 | 11:30 AM – 12:15 PM PST | See how the latest from SQL in Fabric brings transactional and analytical workloads together in one end-to-end AI-driven solution. Theater sessions (in person only) 1. THR707: Elevate SQL development with VSCode, GitHub Copilot and new drivers Tue, Nov 18 | 2:00 PM – 2:30 PM PST | A demo-heavy theater session showing how AI-driven tools streamline SQL development. Love coding efficiency? This one’s for you. 2. THR711: Smarter SQL: GitHub Copilot + SSMS 22 Thu, Nov 20 | 3:30 PM – 4:00 PM PST | Hands-on exploration of AI-powered Copilots in SQL Server Management Studio and beyond. 3. THR704: Accelerate SQL Migrations with AI-assisted experience in Azure Arc Thu, Nov 20 | 9:30 AM – 10:00 AM PST | Learn how Azure Arc simplifies SQL migrations with near-zero downtime. For the builders: Labs (in person only) LAB533: Build scalable AI & Data Solutions in SQL Database in Microsoft Fabric LAB530: Build new AI Applications with Azure SQL Databases Connect with us at the Expert Meet Up stations! (in person only) Come back and learn more about the onsite experiences we’re bringing to San Francisco!Microsoft at PASS Data Community Summit 2025
Microsoft is excited to be back as the Sapphire Sponsor for this year’s PASS Data Community Summit, together with AMD. It’ll be a week packed with keynotes, learning pathways, sessions, breakfast, giveaways and more! Our experts and engineers will be there and ready to share all things SQL Server 2025, cover the latest from Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric and more—delivered on a foundation of AMD-powered innovation. Whether your goals are modernizing for performance and AI readiness or building intelligent apps and agents, we’ll have you covered. Join us to “Connect, Share and Learn” alongside the rest of your peers at the PASS community. CVP of Azure Databases, Shireesh Thota, is back as the keynote speaker, and will be joined by leaders across Microsoft Data including Priya Sathy and Bob Ward—highlighting how Microsoft and AMD are shaping the future of data together. Join us on Day 2, Thursday, November 20 th . Come back and check as new sessions are added: Learning Pathways: Becoming Azure SQL DBA – High Availability and BCDR Dr. Dani Ljepava, Bob Ward, John Morehouse Learn how to evolve your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of High Availability (HA), Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) from the perspective of on-premises DBA’s. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Security, Compliance, Threats, Connectivity Pam Lahoud, Joey Dantoni Evolve your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of security, compliance, authentication and connectivity, from the perspective of an on-premises DBA now supporting databases in Azure. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Performance Monitoring, Tuning, and Alerting Erin Stellato, Pam Lahoud, Monica Morehouse (Rathbun) Extend your Azure SQL DBA skills in the domain of performance monitoring, tuning, and alerting from the perspective of on-premises DBA. Becoming Azure SQL DBA – Copilot and AI Davide Mauri, Erin Stellato Unlock the future of data productivity with a hands-on exploration of AI-powered Copilots! We’ll dive into Copilot in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Microsoft Copilot in Azure with NL2SQL and SQL, and Copilot for SQL Databases in Microsoft Fabric. Becoming an Azure SQL DBA - New Opportunities for DBAs in Azure Bob Ward, Dr. Dani Ljepava, Erin Stellato, Pam Lahoud Explore new skill development opportunities as an Azure SQL DBA. Many traditional SQL Server DBA tasks have been partially or fully delegated to Microsoft, and this shift in responsibilities provides a great opportunity to invest in developing new cloud skills that will help you excel as an Azure SQL DBA champion. General Sessions Breakfast with the Microsoft Data Leadership Team JUST ADDED! Shireesh Thota, Priya Sathy, Bob Ward, Erin Stellato Get your day started early at PASS Data Community Summit with a free breakfast and a Q&A session with a panel of leaders across Microsoft hosted by Bob Ward. Tell us what is top of mind for you across SQL Server, Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric and topics like AI. This is always one of the most popular sessions at the PASS Data Community Summit, so you won’t want to miss it! Lunch and Learn with Bob Ward JUST ADDED! Join us for a lunch and learn with Bob Ward as he covers all things SQL and dives into his latest release: SQL Server 2025 Unveiled: The AI-Ready Enterprise Database with Microsoft Fabric Integration. Space will be extremely limited, bring your lunch and join this exclusive session! Inside SQL Server 2025 Bob Ward Join Bob Ward and friends to go deep into the next major release of SQL Server, SQL Server 2025, the Enterprise AI-ready database. You will learn the fundamentals and a deep dive of all the new capabilities in the release so you can plan and make key decisions on when and how to upgrade. SQL Database in Fabric: The Unified Database for AI Apps and Analytics JUST ADDED! Amar Digamber Patil, Yo-Lei Chen, Basudep Sarkar Discover how SQL in Fabric brings transactional and analytical workloads together in one cloud-native database. In this session, we’ll show how developers and data teams can simplify AI-driven application development with near real-time insights and built-in AI, seamless OneLake integration, and end-to-end analytics—all in a single, unified experience. Building Scalable, Secure AI Apps with Azure SQL Hyperscale Build AI apps that run securely and scale with your needs with Azure SQL Database Hyperscale. We’ll cover native vector indexes for semantic search, read scale‑out for low‑latency RAG, using the model of your choice, from T‑SQL. Ecosystem sessions Smarter GitHub Copilot + SSMS 22 Erin Stellato Discover how GitHub Copilot is transforming the way you write T-SQL and optimize your SQL databases inside SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22. In this session, we’ll showcase the newest SSMS 22 features alongside real-world demos of GitHub Copilot, highlighting how AI assistance can speed up query writing, reduce errors, and boost productivity. Booth Experiences What: Book signing "SQL Server 2025 Unveiled" with Bob Ward When: Wednesday, November 19th evening reception Where: Microsoft and AMD booth (#404) Join us as we celebrate the release of "SQL Server 2025 Unveiled" at the PASS Summit evening reception! Limited to the first 200 attendees. Now on demand! Get a jump start on your PASS experience. "The AI Opportunity: From Ground to Cloud" webinar is now available on demand! Get an early preview of the sessions at PASS Summit and a closer look into SQL Server 2025. Hosted by Redgate’s Kellyn Gorman and Bob Ward, sign up and watch today! --Exclusive Offer for PASS Attendees-- As a special offer from Microsoft, use the code AZURE150 to receive $150 off your 3-day conference pass. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, grow, and learn with the community. Register todayEntra Authentication in Arc enabled SQL Server 2025 - Windows
This blog will discuss the newly added, “Primary managed identity” in Arc enabled SQL Server 2025 by Microsoft Entra, which enables credential free authentication for both inbound & outbound communications. The Primary Managed Identity pertains to the identity of the Arc machine, which is registered by the Arc machine agent with Microsoft Entra. SQL Server can utilize this identity to authenticate with other Azure services. Associate a “Primary managed identity” to the SQL Server: Arc enabled windows machine, have a managed identity created for them. SQL Server 2025 can now use that identity to establish a trust relationship with Microsoft Entra. You can attach this identity to SQL Server by opting for it from the Azure portal. To activate the primary managed identity from Azure, as a pre-requisite, you need the latest Azure extension for SQL Server release. Note: We keep improving the Azure portal user experience and you might see slight differences depending on when you are reading this blog post. A primary managed identity is necessary for both outbound and inbound communication. Alternatively, you can just Arc enable the host machine and use the manual set up for the managed identity feature. This eliminates the need for the Azure extension for SQL Server, which you must uninstall. With this approach you will not be able to use the Azure portal for Microsoft Entra features. Outbound Communication: You can now use this Primary managed identity to connect the SQL Server 2025 to Azure resources like Azure Storage and Azure Key vault. Follow this to set up the backup to an Azure storage URL, and EKM with Azure key vault. Inbound Communication: You can also use the primary managed identity to create Entra based users and logins to connect to SQL Server 2025. For this you will need to grant these graph API permissions. User.Read.All, GroupMember.Read.All, and Application.Read.All Read more here for the details and limitations on this managed identity setup. For Arc-enabled SQL Server 2025, we recommend using managed identity as it is more secure than the credential-based setup from SQL Server 2022. Although you can still register your SQL Server 2025 with Microsoft Entra for inbound communication only, the Azure portal for SQL 2025 will no longer support the App-registration method. Next steps: To proceed, please obtain your SQL Server 2025 from here to explore all the SQL Server 2025 features available in the public preview version. If you are using an antivirus software, please refer to these instructions.Migration Dashboard for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc
Overview We are excited to announce the new Migration Dashboard feature in the Azure portal. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, automatically produces an assessment for migration to Azure. This assessment plays a vital role in the success of your cloud migration and modernization journey. This dashboard provides visibility into the assessment coverage and migration readiness across all your SQL Server instances enabled by Azure Arc. How to view the Migration Dashboard Using this feature is simple. Navigate to the Azure portal and search for Azure Arc. Click through into the Azure Arc center. Under Data Services, click on SQL Server Instances. You will be presented with the list of SQL Server instances enabled by Azure Arc. Switch to the Migration Dashboard tab in the right pane to get the at-scale summary of your instances, the migration assessment coverage and migration readiness of your SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc. Understand the Migration Dashboard The dashboard: Provides an overview of SQL Server instances and databases discovered. Provides an overview of the SQL Server instances which have assessments generated. Provides migration readiness summary for each of the Azure SQL offerings. Provides rich filtering capabilities enabling you to tailor the view to your needs. The first section of the migration dashboard presents an overview of all SQL Server instances and databases accessible to you. You can also see the distribution of the instances by version and edition. The next section provides you with an overview of the migration assessment and migration readiness of the instances of SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc. You can see how many instances have assessments available. The migration readiness for each Azure SQL offering is separately shown. Call to Action We encourage you to use the Migration Dashboard to: Track Migration Assessment coverage across your SQL Server instances enabled by Azure Arc. Understand your migration readiness to the Azure SQL offerings. Here are a few steps to get started: Explore the Feature: Visit the Azure portal and take some time to familiarize yourself with the dashboard and the insights it provides. Join the Community: Share your experiences and insights with the Azure Arc community. Join our forums and participate in discussions to learn how others are leveraging this feature to optimize their server environments. Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest updates and best practices for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc by following our blog and subscribing to our newsletter. We regularly share tips, tutorials, and success stories from our users. We are confident that the Migration Dashboard will be a valuable addition to your SQL Server migration journey to Azure. We look forward to your feedback and success stories as you begin to explore this new feature.Client Connection Summary for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc
Overview We are excited to announce our new SQL Server client connection summary feature for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc. This addition provides visibility to the clients connecting to your SQL Server instances, helping to simplify monitoring, security and management. Customers wanting to determine the clients that are connecting to their SQL Server instances need to poll the sys.dm_exec_sessions dynamic management view to identify these connections and track activity. With this feature in SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, the agent is able to capture this information, providing visibility into which clients are connecting to your SQL Server instances. The system automatically polls the DMV at hourly intervals and aggregates these connections for you, enabling more informed decision-making and streamlined operations. How does it work? With this new feature: Hourly Data Collection: The monitoring agent collects client connection data at hourly intervals using the sys.dm_exec_sessions dynamic view. 30-Day Data Storage: The data is stored in telemetry for 30 days. This allows for extended analysis. Data Summarization: The unique client connections are summarized over a time period of your choice within the past 30 days. How to Use the Client Connection Summary Using this feature is simple. Follow these steps: Step 1: Enable the Client Connection Feature Navigate to the Azure portal and select your SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc instance. Under the "Monitoring" tab, navigate to the SQL Server Connections view. Ensure that the feature is enabled. If it is not, click the button to enable data collection. This initiates the task for collecting data at hourly intervals. Step 2: Access the Client Connection Summary Once enabled, you will soon start seeing an overview of client connections. Step 3: Analyze the Data Filter for specific program name values of interest. You can also change the Time Range as required and examine the data to understand connection patterns. Call to Action We encourage you to use the Client Connection Summary feature of SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc. Here are a few steps to get started: Explore the Feature: Visit the Azure portal and enable client connection tracking on your SQL Server instances. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the view and the insights it provides. Join the Community: Share your experiences and insights with the Azure Arc community. Join our forums and participate in discussions to learn how others are leveraging this feature to optimize their server environments. Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest updates and best practices for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc by following our blog and subscribing to our newsletter. We regularly share tips, tutorials, and success stories from our users. We are confident that the Client Connection summary will be a valuable addition to your SQL Server management toolkit. We look forward to your feedback and success stories as you begin to explore this new feature.
Single pane of glass to look at all of my SQL Servers
I just got back from SQL Pass Summit 2024 and I was told that I could ARC enable all of my SQL Servers so I would have a single pane of glass to view and scan logs, configurations, view best practices etc. Unfortunately, when I got home, I realized that since we have SQL Servers on Azure VMs we can't use Azure ARC to manage them. Unsupported configurations Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server doesn't currently support the following configurations: ... Multiple instances of SQL Server installed on the same host operating system with the same instance name. SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines. An Always On availability group where one or more replicas is on a failover cluster instance. Since all our Azure VMs have the SQL Agent installed how can we unify our management experience in Azure?SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, now assists in selecting the best Azure SQL target
To make the SQL Server migration journey more efficient, the SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc can now help our customers assess the readiness of their SQL Server workloads for Azure SQL migration and assist them in choosing the most suitable Azure SQL configuration.
