Entra 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.
Arc enabled Azure migration & modernization journey
This blog explains how SQL Servers connected to Azure Arc can make the migration and modernization process to Azure SQL easier and faster. SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc allows SQL Server instances hosted outside of Azure to access Azure services. This results in operational efficiencies and cost reductions. Moreover, it also offers a simple migration path to Azure with minimal or no downtime.
The Bridge - How Azure Arc brings cloud innovation to SQL Server anywhere
The ability to effectively manage data is more critical than ever and increasingly complex — with organizations hosting data on-premises, at the edge, and across multiple clouds. With the increasing need for businesses to maximize existing resources, one thing is clear: Today’s organizations need a bridge to bring cloud innovation to data estate across all environments – a consistent and efficient experience for managing, governing and security data. That bridge is Microsoft’s Azure Arc.
