Azure Monitor SQL Insights – Preview
Azure Monitor SQL insights (Preview) Comprehensive and reliable monitoring is a top priority for all SQL customers. The Azure SQL and Azure Monitor teams are proud to announce the preview of Azure Monitor SQL insights: a new, Azure-native monitoring experience for almost any SQL deployment in Azure.Public Preview: Shrink for Azure SQL Database Hyperscale
Update: On 29 January 2025 we announced the General Availability for shrink in Hyperscale. For more details, please read the GA announcement. If you are using Hyperscale in Azure SQL Database, you know that it is a powerful tier that lets you rapidly scale up and scale out your database according to your needs along with autoscaling storage. However, there could be situations where storage is scaled up automatically and then due to some business needs, a significant amount of data is removed/purged and a lot of free space is left within the database Today, we are pleased to announce that database and data file shrink is available in the Hyperscale tier in preview. Now you can reduce the allocated size of a Hyperscale database using the same DBCC SHRINK* commands that you might be familiar with. This allows you to reduce the size of the databases and free up unused space to save storage costs. How to use shrink in Hyperscale? Using shrink is easy and straightforward. You use the same set of commands which you might have used in other tiers of Azure SQL Database or in SQL Server. First, identify a Hyperscale database with substantial allocated but unused storage space. For definitions of allocated and used storage space, see Azure SQL Database file space management - Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Docs. Azure portal also provides this information. You can also capture the current used, allocated, and unused space in each database file by executing the following query in the database. DECLARE @NumPagesPerGB float = 128 * 1024; SELECT file_id AS FileId , size / @NumPagesPerGB AS AllocatedSpaceGB , ROUND(CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS float)/@NumPagesPerGB,3) AS UsedSpaceGB , ROUND((size-CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS float))/@NumPagesPerGB,3) AS FreeSpaceGB , ROUND(max_size / @NumPagesPerGB,3) AS MaxSizeGB , ROUND(CAST(size - FILEPROPERTY(name, 'SpaceUsed') AS float)*100/size,3) AS UnusedSpacePercent FROM sys.database_files WHERE type_desc = 'ROWS' ORDER BY file_id A shrink operation can be initiated using either command to shrink the entire database, or DBCC SHRINKFILE command for individual data files. We recommend using DBCC SHRINKFILE, because you can run it in parallel on multiple sessions, targeting different data files. DBCC SHRINKDATABASE is a simpler choice because you only need to run one command, but it will shrink one file at a time, which can be time-consuming for larger databases. If shrink operation fails with any error or canceled, the progress it has made so far is retained, and the same shrink command can be simply executed again to continue. Once shrink for all data files has completed, rerun the earlier query (or check in the Azure portal) to determine the resulting reduction in the allocated storage size. If there is still a large difference between used space and allocated space, you can rebuild indexes to reduce the total number of used data pages. This may temporarily increase allocated space further, however shrinking files again after rebuilding indexes should result in a higher reduction in allocated space. For more details about Azure SQL Database space management, see the following documentation article: Database file space management - Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Learn Known behaviors / limitations Database shrink is a long-running operation. For larger databases, it may span multiple days. To avoid shrink getting interrupted, we recommend using a client that is unlikely to get disconnected from the database. While shrink is running, used and allocated space for the database in the Azure portal might not be reported. Running SHRINKFILE with a target size slightly higher than the used space in the file tends to have a higher success rate compared to setting it to the exact used space. For instance, if a file is 128 GB in total size with 50 GB used and 78 GB free, setting the target size to 55 GB results in a better space reduction compared to using 50 GB. When executing DBCC SHRINKFILE concurrently on multiple files, you may encounter occasional blocking between the sessions. This is expected and does not impact the outcome of shrink. Shrinking of the transaction log file in the Hyperscale tier is not required as it does not contribute to the allocated data size and cost. Executing DBCC SHRINKFILE(2) has no effect on the transaction log size. Shrink is currently in preview mode and has the following limitations: Shrink is not allowed on unencrypted databases. Any such attempt raises the following error: Msg 49532, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 DBCC SHRINKFILE for data files is not supported in a Hyperscale database when the database is not encrypted. Enable transparent data encryption and try again. To find the encryption state of the database, execute the following query: SELECT db_name(database_id) AS 'database_name' ,encryption_state_desc FROM sys.dm_database_encryption_keys WHERE database_id = db_id() If encryption state is other than ENCRYPTED then shrink will not start. Conclusion We hope that you will find shrink useful and beneficial for your Hyperscale databases. We welcome your feedback and suggestions on how to improve it. You can contact us by adding to this blog post and we’ll be happy to get back to you. Alternatively, you can also email us at sqlhsfeedback AT microsoft DOT com. We are eager to hear from you all!Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure SQL Database (Public Preview)
We are excited to announce the introduction of new Copilot skills for Azure SQL Database! Microsoft Copilot in Azure can now help you streamline the design, operation, optimization, and health of Azure SQL Database-driven applications. It improves productivity in the Azure portal by offering self-help for database administration and natural language to SQL conversion.Announcing Azure Data Tech Groups v2.0: Big News for User Groups and Members
Two years ago, Microsoft publicly launched the new Azure Data Community webpage, and created Azure Data Tech Groups utilizing Meetup. Prior to this, many user groups used PASS resources to host their websites, virtual meetings, manage members and more. Over the following months, we onboarded qualified user groups to the new Azure Data Meetup network and began providing Microsoft Teams access to help groups meet virtually through the pandemic. All of our community efforts were to empower the community, provide you with resources to help you continue to connect with one another, learn and develop your skills, and grow in your careers. V 1.0 of Azure Data Tech Groups had one great big limitation: groups that didn't use Meetup had to start or we weren't able to include them. This had the greatest impact on the community in LATAM, the Middle East and APAC, as they're less likely to utilize Meetup. This latest initiative will expand access to our network to more groups globally, groups that use their own website, LinkedIn, HDX or various ways to connect with members.Announcing General Availability of Change Data Capture (CDC) on Azure SQL Database
We are excited to announce the general availability (GA) of change data capture (CDC) in Azure SQL Database. What is Change data capture (CDC)? CDC provides historical change information for a user table by capturing both the fact that Data Manipulation Language (DML) changes (insert / update / delete) were made and the changed data. Changes are captured by using a capture process that reads changes from the transaction log and places them in corresponding change tables. These change tables provide a historical view of the changes made over time to source tables. CDC functions enable the change data to be consumed easily and systematically. Why use Change data capture (CDC)? CDC is a widely used feature by a wide range of customers for a variety of purposes as mentioned below, but not limited to: Tracking data changes for auditing Recording data changes on source database and integrating with other services (e.g. Azure Data Factory) to stream these changes to other destinations Performing analytics on change data Change data capture (CDC) on Azure SQL database CDC is now generally available on Azure SQL databases, enabling customers to track insert / update / delete data changes on their Azure SQL Database tables. On Azure SQL database, CDC offers a similar functionality to SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance, providing a scheduler which automatically runs change capture and cleanup processes on the change tables. These capture and cleanup processes used to be run as SQL Server Agent jobs on SQL Server on premises and on Azure SQL Managed Instance, but now they run automatically through the scheduler in Azure SQL databases. Customers can still run scans and cleanup manually on demand. CDC on Azure SQL database has been one of the most requested features through Azure feedback mechanisms. Multiple customers have successfully used CDC during public preview, such as Rubrik, a major cloud data management company. After using CDC, they highlighted: “Flawless implementation. An extremely useful addition to Azure SQL Databases that enabled us to track and capture changes from them meticulously.” Enabling change data capture (CDC) on an Azure SQL database Customers will be able to use CDC on Azure SQL databases higher than the S3 (Standard) tier or vCore equivalent. More specifically, CDC cannot be enabled on subcore databases. Enabling CDC on an Azure SQL database is similar to enabling CDC on SQL Server or Azure SQL Managed Instance. Learn more here: Enable CDC Sending CDC data changes to other destinations Multiple Microsoft technologies such as Azure Data Factory can be used to move CDC change data to other destinations (e.g. other databases, data warehouses). Other third-party services also offer streaming capabilities for changed data from CDC. For instance, Striim and Qlik offer integration, processing, delivery, analysis, or visualization capabilities for CDC changes. “Real-time information is vital to the health of the enterprises,” says Codin Pora, VP of Technology and partnership at Striim. “Striim is excited to support the new change data capture (CDC) capabilities of Azure SQL Database and help companies drive their digital transformation by bringing together data, people, and processes. Striim, through its Azure SQL Database CDC pipelines, provides real-time data for analytics and intelligence workloads, operational reporting, ML/AI implementations and many other use cases, creating value as well as competitive advantage in a digital-first world. Striim builds continuous streaming data pipelines with minimal overhead on the source Azure SQL Database systems, while moving database operations (inserts, updates, and deletes) in real time with security, reliability, and transactional integrity.” “Joint customers are excited about the potential of leveraging Qlik Data Integration alongside CDC in Azure SQL DB and CDC for SQL MI to securely access more of their valuable data for analytics in the cloud,” said Kathy Hickey, Vice President, Product Management at Qlik. “We are happy to announce that in addition to support for Azure SQL MI as a source, the newly available MS-CDC capabilities will also allow us to support Azure SQL DB sources via our Early Access Program. We look forward to partnering with Microsoft on helping customers leverage these capabilities to confidently create new insights from their Azure managed data sources.” More Information To know more about change data capture (CDC), check out the documentation. Learn module: Data replication on Azure SQL Databases - Learn | Microsoft DocsDatabase Hub in Fabric: Now in Public Preview -Turn Database Signals into Guided Action
As applications grow, so does the database estate behind them. What starts with a handful of databases can become hundreds or thousands of resources spread across services, subscriptions, and environments. For the teams responsible for keeping them healthy, the challenge is no longer just collecting signals. It is knowing what needs attention, why it matters, and what to do next. Now in public preview, Database Hub in Microsoft Fabric brings inventory, health, performance, security, and optimization insights into one connected experience. It helps administrators and developers see the bigger picture, identify affected resources, and move from estate-wide visibility to focused investigation, without losing the context that brought them there. The preview brings together supported resources across Azure SQL Database, SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and SQL database in Fabric. Available capabilities and signals vary by service and preview configuration. Database Hub Overview brings together estate-wide findings and cross-engine performance trends to help you prioritize what needs attention. Start with what needs your attention When you manage a large database estate, another dashboard is only useful if it helps you decide where to spend your time. The Overview page provides that starting point, bringing together findings across security, performance, and optimization. It distinguishes Issues, which require timely attention, from Suggestions, which highlight opportunities to improve your estate over time. You might begin with a security configuration that needs review or a performance signal that warrants investigation. Selecting a finding opens Estate with the relevant filters already applied, so you can see the affected resources rather than search for them again. The result is a more direct path from “something needs attention” to “these are the resources I should investigate.” Overview highlights issues across Security, Performance, and Optimization, with affected-resource counts and direct links to investigate further. Bring your estate into one view, and make it relevant to you The Estate experience brings supported resources into a unified inventory, scoped to your existing permissions. Search and filters help you narrow that inventory to the service, subscription, or resource group you manage. This is especially useful when your responsibilities span database engines. You can begin with a broader view, then focus on Azure SQL databases, Arc-enabled SQL Server resources, or Azure Database for PostgreSQL flexible servers without rebuilding the resource list in separate portals. Each resource brings its associated Issues and Suggestions into context. Open a finding to review the affected resource, supporting information, and recommended next step. The inventory also respects the resource model of each service. For example, the PostgreSQL view represents flexible server instances, rather than every database hosted within them. A unified view does not mean moving your databases. Your Azure resources remain in their existing subscriptions, and on-premises SQL Server instances remain on-premises, connected through Azure Arc. Database Hub brings operational context together; it does not require relocating or mirroring your application data into Fabric. Estate brings resource inventory, Issues, and Suggestions into one view, with quick actions to continue investigation in the Azure portal, VS Code, or SSMS. Understand security posture and performance in context Database Hub helps you identify configurations worth reviewing and resources that need a closer look. For security, supported signals can include Microsoft Entra authentication, customer-managed keys, and auditing coverage, depending on the database service. These findings provide a starting point for investigation, not a blanket judgment that every flagged resource is insecure or noncompliant. For example, a suggestion to review customer-managed keys should be evaluated against your organization’s requirements. A resource using service-managed keys is still encrypted at rest. For performance, built-in dashboards bring supported utilization and activity signals into view, including CPU, memory, storage, I/O, and connections. Review trends across your estate, then narrow the scope and time range to investigate individual resources. Metric availability varies by engine and monitoring configuration; missing data should not be interpreted as good health. For supported SQL monitoring scenarios, you can also create a custom monitoring dashboard from a template and tailor its charts and layout to the resources your team follows regularly. Together, these experiences help answer two practical questions: Where is pressure building, and where is there an opportunity to improve? Performance summaries highlight recent capacity signals and trends across Microsoft SQL, PostgreSQL, and Cosmos DB. The Security dashboard summarizes Microsoft Entra authentication, audit logging, and customer-managed key coverage, helping you identify configurations that warrant review across your estate. The Performance monitoring dashboard combines memory-pressure trends, resource-level details, and interpretation guidance to help focus your investigation. Move from a finding to an informed next step Estate-wide visibility is the beginning of an investigation, not a replacement for database expertise. When a finding needs deeper analysis, Database Hub helps you review the evidence and continue in the appropriate native experience, such as the Azure portal or SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Engine-specific diagnostics and configuration changes remain in the tools designed for that work. Consider a performance issue that occurred before an administrator could inspect it. In supported agent-assisted scenarios, captured incident evidence can help establish what happened, when it happened, and which queries or sessions were involved. That context gives the administrator a more informed starting point for investigation. The operator remains in control: review the evidence, evaluate the recommendation, and apply authorized changes through the appropriate service tools. The preview investigation workflow does not automatically remediate issues, and existing permissions and approval requirements continue to apply. Bring database expertise into agent-assisted workflows We are also making database operational intelligence available through agent skills: reusable capabilities that agents can call to support observability, monitoring, diagnostics, optimization, and other database operations. Database Hub provides estate context; skills provide a way to bring database expertise into an agent-assisted investigation. This creates a foundation for helping teams move from identifying an affected resource to understanding its signals and evaluating the next step. We’re building toward making this expertise available in the AI companions and development tools teams already use, with recommendations grounded in evidence, the specific database, and your organization’s operational controls. If we take a step back, our broader vision brings together a free, extensible Database Hub experience, agentic observability, and OneLake integration, all within Microsoft Fabric. It’s a foundation for connecting database operations with analytics and AI and helping teams turn signals into informed action. Get started with Database Hub Start with the Database Hub documentation to review preview availability, supported services, and setup requirements. Ask your Fabric administrator to enable the preview where required, confirm that you have the appropriate resource permissions, and complete any service-specific monitoring prerequisites. Then open Microsoft Fabric, select Databases in the left navigation, and begin with Overview. Choose a finding, explore the affected resources in Estate, and follow the evidence into your next investigation. For more details on supported services and getting set up, the Database Hub documentation is also available on Microsoft Learn. Learn more What is Database Hub in Fabric? Enable performance monitoring for Microsoft SQL Performance Monitoring for Azure SQL in Database HubIntroducing the Enhanced Azure SQL Database Free Offer: Now Generally Available
We are thrilled to announce the general availability of our new Azure SQL Database free offer. Now, each Azure subscription includes not just one, but 10 serverless databases. Each database comes with a complimentary allocation of 100,000 vCore seconds of compute, 32 GB of data storage, and 32 GB of backup storage every month, for the lifetime of your subscription. This enhanced free offer is ideal for new Azure customers looking to develop for free, learn SQL, or create a proof of concept, as well as existing Azure customers that are considering adding another database. Get started today To learn more about the offer, see Azure SQL Database documentation. If you already have an Azure account, you can head straight to the Azure SQL Database provisioning page and select the Apply offer button in the banner at the top of the page. This offer is now live in all regions! Offer details The Azure SQL Database free offer provides access to the full capabilities of the General Purpose tier, renowned for its versatility and ability to support a wide range of workloads. Whether you're handling routine operations or running high-performance tasks, the free offer empowers you to configure your database from .5 vCore to 4 vCores, scaling up or down based on your needs. You can also benefit from the serverless option, which automatically pauses the database when idle and resumes it as soon as activity starts, reducing compute costs while maximizing your free allocation. With this free offer, every Azure subscription—whether it's pay-as-you-go, under an enterprise agreement, or part of the Microsoft Partner Network—can now include up to 10 serverless databases. The offer is designed to last for the lifetime of your subscription and refreshes monthly, giving each database a generous allocation of 100,000 vCore seconds, 32 GB of data storage, and 32 GB of backup storage, that’s a total of 1 million vCore-seconds of free compute every month per subscription. Once a region is selected for the free database under a subscription, the same region applies to all 10 free databases in that subscription and cannot be changed If you consume your monthly free resources before the end of the cycle, you have two flexible options: Auto-pause: Allow the database to pause itself and resume usage automatically when the next month's free allocation begins. Continue usage mode: Keep the database running and pay for additional usage. In this mode, you’ll continue to receive the free monthly allocation while unlocking premium capabilities, such as scaling up to 80 vCores of compute and 4 terabytes of storage. This makes it easy to start small and scale seamlessly as your business grows. A standout benefit of this free offer is its seamless transition. You can move from free usage to paid usage without any disruption—your data, schema, settings, and connections remain intact. There’s no need to migrate or reconfigure, making it effortless to grow your database as your needs evolve. Additionally, the Azure portal includes 'Free amount remaining' metrics, enabling you to monitor your consumption and manage your costs with ease. This makes the Azure SQL Database free offer an exceptional choice for developers, learners, and enterprises alike—whether you’re just starting out or preparing to scale. Develop for free The Azure SQL Database Free Offer is tailored for a wide range of users—from students and individual developers to small businesses and large enterprises—looking to develop and scale their SQL workloads at no initial cost. This offer enables you to launch up to 10 fully featured Azure SQL database, optimizing both your financial resources and developmental ambitions. Potential Use Cases: Application Development: Initiate the development of applications or websites with SQL as the core backend database. Skill Enhancement: Engage in hands-on SQL learning or refine your existing skills through practical experience and targeted tutorials. Prototyping: Craft proofs of concept or prototypes for innovative projects and ideas. Expansion and Testing: Integrate additional databases into your Azure subscription to facilitate testing or experimentation. Migration Projects: Migrate applications from on-premises setups or other cloud environments to Azure, leveraging its robust capabilities. Leveraging AI with Azure SQL Database Free Offer: Predictive Analytics: Use AI to forecast user behaviors and business outcomes, enhancing decision-making processes across various applications. Personalization Engines: Develop sophisticated personalization algorithms to enhance user experience by tailoring content and recommendations in real-time. Anomaly Detection: Implement AI to detect unusual patterns or potential threats, ensuring the security and integrity of your data. Automated Data Management: Utilize AI to automate data cleaning, transformation, and integration tasks, reducing manual overhead and increasing efficiency. Key Benefits of the Azure SQL Database Free Offer With the Azure SQL Database Free Offer, you gain the advantages of a cloud-native relational database service known for its high availability, stellar performance, security, scalability, and compatibility with SQL Server. Furthermore, you can harness the comprehensive suite of tools and services integrated with Azure SQL Database, such as Azure Data Studio, Visual Studio Code, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI. This rich ecosystem enhances your database's functionality and seamlessly connects with your existing workflows. Learn more The Azure SQL Database Free offer is available now and you can start using it today. Don’t miss this opportunity to get up to 10 free Azure SQL databases that can help you achieve your goals and grow your business. To learn more about this offer, visit the Azure SQL Database documentation. To get started, create your free database from the Azure portal by creating an Azure SQL Database resource. We hope you enjoy this new offer, and we look forward to hearing your feedback and seeing what you build with Azure SQL Database.
