New database migration experience for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc – Public Preview
We’re excited to announce a new database migration experience for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc - now in public preview. This experience is designed to simplify and accelerate SQL Server migration journey to Azure SQL Managed Instance offering a unified, end-to-end workflow directly within the Azure portal. 🚀 What Is It? This new migration experience integrates existing Azure Database Migration Service capabilities into Azure Arc by enabling the entire end to end migration journey with the following capabilities: Continuous database migration assessments with Azure SQL target recommendations and cost estimates. Seamless provisioning of Azure SQL Managed Instance as destination target, also with an option of free instance evaluation. Option to choose between two built-in migration methods: real-time database replication using Distributed Availability Groups (powered by the MI link feature), or log shipping via backup and restore (powered by the Log Replay Service feature). Unified interface that eliminates the need to use multiple tools or to jump between various places in Azure portal. Microsoft Copilot is integrated to assist you at select points during the migration journey. 💡 Why It Matters Traditionally, migrating SQL Server workloads to Azure required juggling between multiple tools, various places in portal, and some manual steps. This new experience changes that by: Providing a single pane of glass in the Azure portal for the entire migration journey. Reducing migration timelines from months to days. Offering real-time replication and minimal downtime migration Enabling validation of target environments using read-only replicas before cutover. Automatically capturing application client connection data to simplify mapping between applications and databases. With built-in support for both MI link and Log Replay Service (LRS), customers can choose the migration method that best fits their SQL Server version and business needs. Optional failback for SQL Server 2022 and above with external tooling. Providing intelligent step-by-step guidance with Microsoft Copilot at select points of the migration journey, helping users make informed decisions. 🧭 Start Your Migration Journey Today In case your SQL Server is Arc enabled, you could proceed right away to Azure portal. If you need to enable it, then onboard your SQL Server to Azure Arc today. In the portal, navigate to Arc enabled SQL Server resource, and on the left-hand side select Migration, then Database Migration (preview). This is where you will navigate to the new database migration experience. ▶️ Demo Video Included below is a short YouTube video demonstrating the database migration experience you can expect. From the main screen, you can navigate through each stage of the migration journey - starting with the database migration readiness assessment, followed by selecting or provisioning an Azure SQL Managed Instance as the target destination, choosing the appropriate migration method, monitoring progress, and performing the final cutover. By selecting the Azure SQL Benefits tab, you’ll gain insights into the advantages of Azure SQL - helping you make well-informed decisions about your migration. You can consult the integrated Microsoft Copilot at select points in the journey for guidance and support to ensure confident and informed decision-making. ➡️ Next steps To get started with the new database migration experience for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc, visit Microsoft Learn: Learn more about new migration experience in Azure Arc on Microsoft Learn We love hearing from our customers! Any feedback or suggestions for the product group, use the following online form to let us know: Provide feedback on database migrations for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc to the product group We hope that you will enjoy our solution, and we look forward to your feedback as you embark on your migration journey!Enhanced SQL Migration Tracking & Bringing SQL Server Arc Assessments to Azure Data Studio
In the ever-evolving landscape of data management, ensuring seamless and efficient migrations is crucial for businesses. Migration is a multi-step process and typically requires multiple tools to complete the migration. To enhance the migration experience, we are bringing a new feature that enhances the migration tracking experience across tools. In this blog post we delve into the benefits this feature offers to streamline the migration tracking process. This feature is available for Azure Data studio users via the latest Azure SQL Migration extension v1.5.8 The Azure SQL migration extension now offers 2 new features in ADS to help users in their migration journey. Ability to view Arc assessments, SKU recommendation in Azure Data Studio Ability to track the migration via SQL Server instance (At no additional cost!) Viewing Arc assessments in Azure Data Studio for SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc If you are planning to migrate SQL Server instances that are Arc-enabled, The Azure Data studio now helps you jump start the migration by providing the ability to view the pre-computed Arc assessments. ADS now provides a link to the pre-computed assessments in the Arc experience Azure portal, which provides migration readiness assessment, SKU recommendation and pricing information (coming soon). Users can continue with rest of their migration journey in the Arc experience. To view the pre-computed assessments computed by Arc, users have to select Yes to the ‘Is your SQL Server instance tracked in Azure? ‘and fill in the Azure resource details of the SQL Server Instance enabled by Azure Arc. The pre-computed assessments and SKU recommendations will be generated as a navigation link to users like below: Ability to streamline the migration tracking process For SQL Server instances which are not Arc-enabled, this feature provides an ability to track the migration by creating an Azure resource with no additional cost associated. Once this resource has been created, users can select this migration resource which is created for their successive migrations that take place for the same source & avail the assessment and readiness benefits. This migration tracking ability is available for both Azure Data Studio and Database migration service portal. Below images show the experience for this ability in Azure DMS portal:
