The Microsoft.Build.Sql project SDK is now generally available
Your database should be part of a wholistic development process, where iterative development tools are coupled with automation for validation and deployment. As previously announced, the Microsoft.Build.Sql project SDK provides a cross-platform framework for your database-as-code such that the database obejcts are ready to be checked into source control and deployed via pipelines like any other modern application component. Today Microsoft.Build.Sql enters general availability as another step in the evolution of SQL database development. Standardized SQL database as code SQL projects are a .NET-based project type for SQL objects, compiling a folder of SQL scripts into a database artifact (.dacpac) for manual or continuous deployments. As a developer working with SQL projects, you’re creating the T-SQL scripts that define the objects in the database. While the development framework around SQL projects presents a clear build and deploy process for development, there’s no wrong way to incorporate SQL projects into your development cycle. The SQL objects in the project can be manually written or generated via automation, including through the graphical schema compare interfaces or the SqlPackage extract command. Whether you’re developing with SQL Server, Azure SQL, or SQL in Fabric, database development standardizes on a shared project format and the ecosystem of tooling around SQL projects. The same SQL projects tools, like the SqlPackage CLI, can be used to either deploy objects to a database or update those object scripts from a database. Free development tools for SQL projects, like the SQL database projects extension for VS Code and SQL Server Data Tools in Visual Studio, bring the whole development team together. The database model validation of a SQL project build provides early verification of the SQL syntax used in the project, before code is checked in or deployed. Code analysis for antipatterns that impact database design and performance can be enabled as part of the project build and extended. This code analysis capability adds in-depth feedback to your team’s continuous integration or pre-commit checks as part of SQL projects. Objects in a SQL project are database objects you can have confidence in before they’re deployed across your environments. Evolving from original SQL projects SQL projects converted to the Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK benefit from support for .NET 8, enabling cross-platform development and automation environments. While the original SQL project file format explicitly lists each SQL file, SDK-style projects are significantly simplified by including any .sql file in the SQL projects folder structure. Database references enable SQL projects to be constructed for applications where a single project isn’t an effective representation, whether the database includes cross-database references or multiple development cycles contribute to the same database. Incorporate additional objects into a SQL project with database references through project reference, .dacpac artifact reference, and new to Microsoft.Build.Sql, package references. Package references for database objects improve the agility and manageability of the release cycle of your database through improved visibility to versioning and simplified management of the referenced artifacts. Converting existing projects The Microsoft.Build.Sql project SDK is a superset of the functionality of the original SQL projects, enabling you to convert your current projects on a timeline that works best for you. The original SQL projects in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) continue to be supported through the Visual Studio lifecycle, providing years of support for your existing original projects. Converting an existing SQL project to a Microsoft.Build.Sql project is currently a manual process to add a single line to the project file and remove several groups of lines. The resulting Microsoft.Build.Sql project file is generally easier to understand and iteratively develop, with significantly fewer merge conflicts than the original SQL projects. A command line tool, DacpacVerify, is now available to validate that your project conversion has completed without degrading the output .dacpac file. By creating a .dacpac before and after you upgrade the project file, you can use DacpacVerify to confirm the database model, database options, pre/post-deployment scripts, and SQLCMD variables match. The road ahead With SQL Server 2025 on the horizon, support for the SQL Server 2025 target platform will be introduced in a future Microsoft.Build.Sql release along with additional improvements to the SDK references. Many Microsoft.Build.Sql releases will coincide with releases to the DacFx .NET library and the SqlPackage CLI with preview releases ahead of general availability releases several times a year. Feature requests and bug reports for the DacFx ecosystem, including Microsoft.Build.Sql, is managed through the GitHub repository. With the v1 GA of Microsoft.Build.Sql, we’re also looking ahead to continued iteration in the development tooling. In Visual Studio, the preview of SDK-style SSDT continues with new features introduced in each Visual Studio release. Plans for Visual Studio include project upgrade assistance in addition to the overall replacement of the existing SQL Server Data Tools. In the SQL projects extension for VS Code, we’re both ensuring SQL projects capabilities from Azure Data Studio are introduced as well as increasing the robustness of the VS Code project build experience. The Microsoft.Build.Sql project SDK empowers database development to integrate with the development cycle, whether you're focused on reporting, web development, AI, or anything else. Use Microsoft.Build.Sql projects to branch, build, commit, and ship your database – get started today from an existing database or with a new project. Get to know SQL projects from the documentation and DevOps samples.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.Microsoft.Build.Sql: the next frontier of SQL projects
In the April release of the SQL database projects extension for Azure Data Studio and VS Code (v0.16.1) we are introducing preview support for an SDK-style SQL project based on the package Microsoft.Build.Sql. The SDK-style SQL project introduces several advantages, especially for developers shipping their applications through CI/CD pipelines or working in cross-platform environments.Database 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 Hub
