What's new in Azure SQL Managed Instance?
Applies to: 
Azure SQL Managed Instance
This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with new features and improvements in the recent releases of Azure SQL Managed Instance. To learn more about Azure SQL Managed Instance, see What is Azure SQL Managed Instance?.
Note
Microsoft Entra ID was previously known as Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
Preview
The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that are currently in preview.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. |
| Service Broker | Support for cross-instance message exchange using Service Broker between instances of Azure SQL Managed Instance, and between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Threat detection | Threat detection notifies you of security threats detected to your database. |
General availability (GA)
The following table lists features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that have been made generally available (GA) within the last 12 months:
| Feature | GA Month | Details |
|---|---|---|
| MI link from SQL Server 2017 | March 2025 | Configure a link from SQL Server 2017 to Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Native Windows principals | February 2025 | Use the new Windows authentication metadata mode to allow Windows authentication or Microsoft Entra authentication (using a Windows principal metadata) with Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support | November 2024 | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. |
| Fail over a link with T-SQL | October 2024 | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. |
| Link from SQL MI to SQL Server | October 2024 | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. |
| Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 | October 2024 | In the event of a disaster, you can fail your SQL Server 2022 workloads to Azure SQL Managed Instance using the link, and then, once the disaster is mitigated, you can fail back to SQL Server. |
| CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL | August 2024 | A Transact-SQL (T-SQL) function that returns the current database system date as a date value, without the database time and time zone offset. |
| Maintenance window advance notifications | June 2024 | Advance notifications for SQL managed instance maintenance window are now generally available. |
| Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions | March 2024 | Azure Functions supports function triggers for Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
Documentation changes
Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation. For previous years, see the What's new archive.
March 2025
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| MI link from SQL Server 2017 GA | Configure a link from SQL Server 2017 to Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is generally available. Review Managed Instance link from SQL Server 2017 to learn more. |
February 2025
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP preview | Use the sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. This stored procedure is currently in preview for Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Native Windows principals GA | Use the Windows authentication metadata mode to allow Windows authentication or Microsoft Entra authentication (using a Windows principal metadata) with Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is now generally available (GA). Review Native Windows principals to learn more. |
November 2024
| Microsoft Entra nonunique name support GA | The CREATE USER Transact-SQL (T-SQL) syntax has been extended to include WITH OBJECT_ID to support creating Microsoft Entra logins and users in Azure SQL Managed Instance that have nonunique names. This feature is now generally available. For more information, see Microsoft Entra nonunique name support. |
October 2024
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Fail over a link with T-SQL GA | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. This feature is now generally available. Review Fail over a link with T-SQL to learn more. |
| Link from SQL MI to SQL Server GA | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. This feature is now generally available. Review Link from SQL MI to SQL Server to learn more. |
| Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 GA | In the event of a disaster, you can fail your SQL Server 2022 workloads to Azure SQL Managed Instance using the link, and then, once the disaster is mitigated, you can fail back to SQL Server. This feature is now generally available. Review Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 to learn more. |
August 2024
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL GA | The CURRENT_DATE Transact-SQL (T-SQL) function returns the current database system date as a date value, without the database time and time zone offset. This function is now generally available. For more information, see CURRENT_DATE (Transact-SQL). |
| Fail over link with T-SQL preview | You can now fail over a Managed Instance link by using Transact-SQL (T-SQL) commands. This capability is currently in preview starting with SQL Server 2022 CU13 (KB5036432). To learn more, review fail over a database. |
Archive
For previous news, see the What's new archive.
Known issues
The known issues content has moved to a dedicated known issues in SQL Managed Instance article.