What's new in Azure SQL Database? (Archive)
Applies to: 
Azure SQL Database
This article summarizes older documentation changes associated with new features and improvements in the releases of Azure SQL Database. To learn more about Azure SQL Database, see What is Azure SQL Database?
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2023
| Changes | Month | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Use Azure Monitor metrics to monitor databases and elastic pools | November | A new reference for monitoring Azure SQL Database with Azure Monitor is available, including a set of recommended alert rules to monitor Azure SQL Database with Azure Monitor metrics and alerts. |
| Elastic jobs preview refresh | November | Updated with a preview refresh and new capabilities, elastic jobs are the SQL Server Agent replacement for Azure SQL Database. Elastic jobs now support Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) authentication, private endpoints, management via REST APIs, Azure Alerts, and new capabilities and user interface in the Azure portal. Job Agents now provide four capacity tiers to scale concurrency for job execution. |
| License-free standby replica preview | November | Save on licensing costs by configuring your secondary database replica for disaster recovery standby. This feature is currently in preview. Review License-free standby replica to learn more. |
| BASE64_ENCODE and BASE64_DECODE support | September | The BASE64_ENCODE and BASE64_DECODE are now available in Azure SQL Database. |
| Database level CMK with TDE GA | September | Database level CMK allows setting the TDE protector as a customer-managed key individually for each database within the server. This feature is now generally available. |
| Hyperscale short-term and long-term retention GA | September | Long-term retention and short-term retention are now both generally available for Hyperscale databases. For more information, read about the GA of long-term retention (LTR) for Hyperscale and the GA of short-term retention for Hyperscale. |
| Microsoft Entra ID rebrand | September | Azure Active Directory has been rebranded to Microsoft Entra ID. |
| Optimized locking additional diagnostic information | September | Additional wait types, wait and lock resources, and deadlock graph elements are available for Optimized locking. |
| External REST Endpoint Invocation GA | August | External REST Endpoint Invocation using sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint makes it possible for developers to call REST/GraphQL endpoints from other Azure Services from right in the Azure SQL Database. |
| XML compression GA | August | XML compression for Azure SQL Database is now generally available. You can use ALTER INDEX to apply XML compression to existing XML indexes. |
| TDS 8.0 GA | August | Azure SQL Database now supports TDS 8.0 for strict encryption of data in transit. |
| Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions GA | May | Azure Functions supports input bindings, and output bindings for the Azure SQL and SQL Server products. This feature is now generally available. For more information, review Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions. |
| Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions preview | May | Azure Functions supports function triggers for the Azure SQL and SQL Server products. This feature is currently in preview. For more information, review Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions. |
| Cross-tenant CMK with TDE GA | May | Cross-tenant CMK with TDE allows placing SQL databases into a separate tenant than the tenant that holds the Azure Key Vault resource used to encrypt the databases. This feature is now generally available. For more information, review Cross-tenant CMK with TDE. |
| Hyperscale elastic pools preview | May | Manage and scale multiple Hyperscale databases in Azure SQL Database by using Hyperscale elastic pools. This feature is now in preview. For more information, review Hyperscale elastic pools. |
| Optimized locking available in Hyperscale GA | May | Optimized locking is a new Database Engine capability that offers an improved locking mechanism that reduces lock memory consumption and blocking among concurrent transactions. This fundamentally improves concurrency and lowers lock memory. Optimized locking is now available in all DTU and vCore service tiers, including provisioned and serverless. This feature is generally available. For more information, review Optimized locking. |
| Approximate Percentile GA | March | Quickly compute percentiles for a large dataset with acceptable rank-based error bounds to help make rapid decisions by using approximate percentile aggregate. This feature is generally available now. For more information, review Approximate percentile. |
| Shrink Database / Shrink File with Low Priority GA | March | This feature solves the concurrency issues that can arise from shrink database and shrink file commands, especially during active maintenance or on busy OLTP environments. In WAIT_AT_LOW_PRIORITY mode, necessary tasks to shrink database files can be completed without negatively affecting application query performance. Review Shrink Database and Shrink File with Low Priority. |
| Database level CMK with TDE preview | March | Previously, TDE with CMK was set at the server level, and was inherited by all encrypted databases associated with that server. Database level CMK allows setting the TDE protector as a customer-managed key individually for each database within the server. This feature is currently in preview. For more information, review Transparent data encryption (TDE) with customer-managed keys at the database level. |
| Azure SQL Database high availability and disaster recovery checklist | February | This guide provides a detailed review of proactive steps you can take to maximize availability, ensure recovery, and prepare for Azure outages. |
| Optimized locking GA | February | Optimized locking is a new Database Engine capability that offers an improved locking mechanism that reduces lock memory consumption and blocking among concurrent transactions. This fundamentally improves concurrency and lowers lock memory. This feature is generally available. For more information, review Optimized locking. |
| Cross-tenant CMK with TDE preview | February | Cross-tenant CMK with TDE allows SQL databases to be in a separate tenant than the tenant holding the Azure Key Vault resource used to encrypt the databases. This feature is currently in preview. For more information, review Cross-tenant CMK with TDE. |
2022
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Azure Synapse Link for SQL GA | Azure Synapse Link for SQL, now generally available, enables near real-time analytics over operational data in SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Database. With a seamless integration between operational stores and Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pools, Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables you to run analytics, business intelligence and machine learning scenarios on your operational data with minimum impact on source databases with a new change feed technology. For more information, review What is Azure Synapse Link for SQL?. |
| Gen5 hardware rename | The Gen5 hardware in the vCore purchasing model has been renamed to standard-series (Gen5). |
| Invoke external REST endpoints preview | It's now possible to call an HTTPS REST endpoint natively, using a new system stored procedure. This feature is currently in preview. For more information, review sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint. |
| Restore progress GA | Tracking the progress of your restore by using the percent_complete column sys.dm_operation_status is now generally available. For more information, read the Restore progress announcement blog post. |
| Time series GA | Generates a series of numbers within a given interval. This feature is generally available. For more information, see GENERATE_SERIES and DATE_BUCKET. |
| Approximate percentiles preview | Support has been added to quickly compute percentiles using approximate percentile aggregate functions for large datasets with acceptable rank-based error bounds. This feature is currently in preview. For more information, see Approx_Percentile_Cont and Approx_Percentile_Disc. |
| Automated TDE key rotation for CMK GA | Automatically switch to a new key when using a customer-managed key (CMK) with TDE. This feature is now generally available. For more information, see Automated key rotation. |
| Database copy of Hyperscale geo secondary replicas GA | It's now possible to use a Hyperscale geo-secondary replica as source for a database copy. This feature is generally available. For more information, see Hyperscale service tier. |
| Hyperscale databases LTR preview | It's now possible to store your Hyperscale database backups for up to 10 years using the long-term retention (LTR) capability. This feature is now in preview. For more information, see long-term retention. |
| Hyperscale reverse migrate GA | This feature allows customers who have recently migrated an existing database in Azure SQL Database to the Hyperscale service tier to move back in an emergency, should Hyperscale not meet their needs. While reverse migration is initiated by a service tier change, it's essentially a size-of-data move between different architectures. This feature is now generally available. For more information, see Reverse migration to the General Purpose service tier. |
| UMI support for auditing preview | It's now possible to configure the storage account used for SQL auditing logs by using User Managed Identity (UMI). This feature is currently in preview. For more information, see auditing. |
| Zone redundant configuration for Hyperscale databases GA | The zone redundant configuration feature utilizes Azure Availability Zones to replicate databases across multiple physical locations within an Azure region. By selecting zone redundancy, you can make your Hyperscale databases resilient to a much larger set of failures, including catastrophic datacenter outages, without any changes to the application logic. This configuration option is now generally available. For more information, see Zone redundant configuration for Hyperscale databases. |
| Named Replicas for Hyperscale databases GA | Named Replicas enable a broad variety of read scale-out scenarios, and easily implement near-real time hybrid transactional and analytical processing (HTAP) solutions. This feature is now generally available. For more information, see named replicas. |
| Active geo-replication and failover groups for Hyperscale databases GA | Active geo-replication and failover groups are now generally available for Hyperscale databases, providing a turn-key business continuity solution, letting you perform quick disaster recovery of databases in case of a regional disaster or a large scale outage. |
| Ledger GA | The ledger feature in SQL Database is now generally available. Use the ledger feature to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. For more information, see Ledger. |
| JavaScript & Python bindings | Support for JavaScript and Python SQL bindings for Azure Functions is currently in preview. For more information, see Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions. |
| Azure Synapse Link for SQL for Azure SQL Database | Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables near real-time analytics over operational data in SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Database. With a seamless integration between operational stores and Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pools, Azure Synapse Link for SQL enables you to run analytics, business intelligence, and machine learning scenarios on your operational data with minimum impact on source databases with a new change feed technology. For more information, see What is Azure Synapse Link for SQL? (Preview). |
| General Purpose tier Zone redundancy GA | Enabling zone redundancy for your provisioned and serverless General Purpose databases and elastic pools is now generally available in select regions. For more information, including region availability, see General Purpose zone redundancy. |
| Change data capture GA | Change data capture (CDC) lets you track all the changes that occur on a database. Though this feature has been available for SQL Server for quite some time, using it with Azure SQL Database is now generally available. For more information, see Change data capture. |
| GA for maintenance window | The maintenance window feature allows you to configure a maintenance schedule for your Azure SQL Database and receive advance notifications of maintenance windows. Maintenance window advance notifications are in public preview for databases configured to use a nondefault maintenance window. |
| Hyperscale zone redundant configuration preview | It's now possible to create new Hyperscale databases with zone redundancy to make your databases resilient to a much larger set of failures. This feature is currently in preview for the Hyperscale service tier. For more information, see Hyperscale zone redundancy. |
| Hyperscale storage redundancy GA | Choosing your storage redundancy for your databases in the Hyperscale service tier is now generally available. For more information, see Configure backup storage redundancy. |
| Elastic transactions | Elastic transactions allow you to execute distributed transactions among cloud databases in Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Managed Instance. Elastic transactions are now generally available. |
| New Hyperscale articles | We have reorganized some existing content into new articles and added new content for Hyperscale. Learn about Hyperscale distributed functions architecture, how to manage a Hyperscale database, and how to create a Hyperscale database. |
2021
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Azure AD-only authentication | Restricting authentication to your Azure SQL Database only to Azure Active Directory users is now generally available. To learn more, see Azure AD-only authentication. |
| Split what's new | The previously combined What's new article has been split by product - What's new in SQL Database and What's new in SQL Managed Instance, making it easier to identify what features are currently in preview, generally available, and significant documentation changes. Additionally, the Known Issues in SQL Managed Instance content has moved to its own page. |
| Maintenance Window support for availability zones | You can now use the Maintenance Window feature if your Azure SQL Database is deployed to an availability zone. This feature is currently in preview. |
| Azure AD-only authentication | It's now possible to restrict authentication to your Azure SQL Database to Azure Active Directory users only. This feature is currently in preview. To learn more, see Azure AD-only authentication. |
| Query store hints | It's now possible to use query hints to optimize your query execution via the OPTION clause. To learn more, see Query store hints. |
| Change data capture | Using change data capture (CDC) with Azure SQL Database is now in preview. To learn more, see Change data capture. |
| SQL Database ledger | SQL Database ledger is in preview, and introduces the ability to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. To learn more, see Ledger. |
| Maintenance window | The maintenance window feature allows you to configure a maintenance schedule for your Azure SQL Database, currently in preview. To learn more, see maintenance window. |