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The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that are currently in preview.
Note
Features currently in preview are available under supplemental terms of use, review for legal terms that apply to Azure features that are in beta, preview, or otherwise not yet released into general availability. Azure SQL Managed Instance provides previews to give you a chance to evaluate and share feedback with the product group on features before they become generally available (GA).
Check if two strings are similar, and calculate the difference between two strings. Use this capability to identify strings that might be different because of character corruption.
Database watcher is a managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family. Database watcher collects in-depth workload monitoring data to give you a detailed view of database performance, configuration, and health. Learn more about database watcher.
Configure which Azure Storage accounts can be accessed from a SQL Managed Instance subnet. Grants an extra layer of protection against inadvertent or malicious data exfiltration.
Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal to help you determine if migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance from a SQL Server VM saves you money or optimizes performance.
Use Microsoft.Build.Sql for SDK-style SQL projects in the SQL Database Projects extension in Visual Studio Code. SDK-style SQL projects are especially advantageous for applications shipped through pipelines or built in cross-platform environments.
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.
An architectural upgrade of the General Purpose service tier that uses Elastic SAN storage for greater resource flexibility, and improved performance while maintaining the same baseline cost as the General Purpose service tier.
Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster.
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.
Save on costs and share resources between multiple instances in a pool within a single virtual machine. A convenient and cost-efficient way to migrate smaller SQL Server instances to the cloud, and the only way to deploy a 2-vCore managed instance.
Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation. For previous years, see the What's new archive.
December
Changes
Details
Traffic management
Learn about how network traffic is managed in Azure SQL Managed Instance, including user-managed and service-managed traffic. Review Traffic management overview to learn more.
Save on cost by choosing the memory allocation for your Next-gen General Purpose instance based on your workload needs. This capability is now generally available. To learn more, review Flexible memory.
Next-gen General Purpose GA
An architectural upgrade of the General Purpose service tier that uses Elastic SAN storage for greater resource flexibility, and improved performance while maintaining the same baseline cost as the General Purpose service tier. This upgrade to the service tier is now generally available (GA). To learn more, review Next-gen General Purpose.
Zone redundancy add-on for GP
To help save on cost, the zone redundancy reservation add-on is now available for Azure SQL Managed Instance in the General Purpose service tier. To learn more, review zone redundancy reservation add-on.
October
Changes
Details
Database migration GA
Migrate your SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc instance to Azure SQL Managed Instance through the Azure portal. This feature is now generally available (GA). Review Migrate SQL Server instance to Azure SQL Managed Instance to learn more.
Redirect connection type default
The redirect connection type is now default for all new and existing instances. The redirect connection type has better latency and throughput performance compared to the legacy proxy connection type. SQL managed instances with the proxyOverride value set to Default before October 2025 are converted to the legacy Proxy connection type, which you can change to Redirect manually using the Azure portal or PowerShell.
Align your SQL managed instance database format with the SQL Server 2025 database engine. This capability is now in preview. To learn more, review SQL Server 2025 update policy.
Azure has announced that support for older TLS versions (TLS 1.0, and 1.1) ends August 31, 2025. For more information, see TLS 1.0 and 1.1 deprecation frequently asked questions. Starting August 2025, versions below TLS 1.2 won't be available.
Optimized locking GA
The optimized locking feature is generally available for Azure SQL Managed Instance configured with the Always-up-to-date or SQL Server 2025 update policy and enabled for all user databases.
UNISTR (Transact-SQL) GA
Azure SQL Managed Instance now supports the UNISTR T-SQL syntax for Unicode string literals. This capability is now generally available for Azure SQL Managed Instance. For more information, see UNISTR (Transact-SQL).
|| (String concatenation) and ||= (Compound assignment) syntax support GA
Save on cost by choosing the memory allocation for your Next-gen General Purpose instance based on your workload needs. This feature is currently in preview. Review Flexible memory to learn more.
Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP GA
Use the sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. This feature is now generally available (GA). Review Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP to learn more.
Reservations discount for zone redundancy
Take advantage of a reservations discount for the zone redundancy addon for instances in the Business Critical service tier. Review Reserved instance discount for zone redundancy to learn more.
Zone redundancy for General Purpose GA
Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. This capability is now generally available (GA). Review Zone redundancy for General Purpose to learn more.
May 2025
Changes
Details
Approximate or fuzzy string matching preview
Check if two strings are similar, and calculate the difference between two strings. Use this capability to identify strings that might be different because of character corruption. This capability is currently in preview for Azure SQL Managed Instance. What is fuzzy string matching?
DATEADD number allows bigint preview
For DATEADD (datepart, number, date), number can be expressed as a bigint. This capability is currently in preview for Azure SQL Managed Instance. For more information, see DATEADD (Transact-SQL).
Free instance GA
The free Azure SQL Managed Instance offer is now generally available (GA), allowing you to try SQL managed instance for free, for the first 12 months after you create your instance. Review Free SQL Managed Instance to learn more.
JSON native data type GA
The json data type provides new capabilities for handling semistructured data in Azure SQL Managed Instance. This data type is now generally available.
Regular expression (REGEX) functions return text based on values in a search pattern. This capability is currently in preview for Azure SQL Managed Instance. For more information, see Regular expressions.
TLS 1.3 support for replication GA
Configure Azure SQL Managed Instance replication agents to use TLS 1.3. This capability is generally available. Review TLS 1.3 support for replication to learn more.
UNISTR (Transact-SQL) preview
Azure SQL Managed Instance now supports the UNISTR T-SQL syntax for Unicode string literals. This capability is currently in preview. For more information, see UNISTR (Transact-SQL).
|| (String concatenation) and ||= (Compound assignment) syntax support preview
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.
January 2025
Changes
Details
SQL Insights retired
SQL Insights has been retired and is no longer available. Use database watcher or another monitoring solution to monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance.
Modernization Advisor preview
Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal for your SQL Server on Azure VM to determine if you can save on cost or optimize your performance by migrating your workload to Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is currently in preview. Review Modernization Advisor to learn more.
November 2024
Changes
Details
Free instance offer updates
The free offer has a few new updates, such as dramatically simplifying the upgrade of your free instance to a paid version, and viewing how many free vCore hours remain for the month. Additionally, the free offer is now available in another nine subscription types. This feature is still in preview. Review Free offer to learn more.
Instance pools GA
Save on costs and share resources between multiple instances in a pool within a single virtual machine. A convenient and cost-efficient way to migrate smaller SQL Server instances to the cloud, and the only way to deploy a 2-vCore managed instance. And now, with reservations support, you can save significantly more on your compute by allocating your reservations to an instance pool. Instance pools are now generally available. Review Instance pools to learn more.
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.
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).