Merge pull request #36419 from mhyon/20260125-multi-fog-secondaries

20260125 Multiple secondaries for failover groups in Azure SQL DB public preview

Author: prmerger-automator[bot]

azure-sql/database/doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Learn about the new features and documentation improvements for Azu
 author: WilliamDAssafMSFT
 ms.author: wiassaf
 ms.reviewer: mathoma, randolphwest
-ms.date: 11/03/2025
+ms.date: 01/29/2026
 ms.service: azure-sql-database
 ms.subservice: service-overview
 ms.topic: whats-new
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with new features a
 > [!TIP]
 > [Deploy Azure SQL Database for free](free-offer.md), for the life of your Azure subscription. This free offer provides up to ten free General Purpose databases, each with 100,000 vCore seconds of compute, every month.
 
-For more announcements, discussion, and community content, see the [Azure SQL Database blog](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-sql-blog/bg-p/AzureSQLBlog).
+For more announcements, discussion, and community content, see the [Azure SQL Database blog](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/category/azuredatabases/blog/azuresqlblog).
 
 ## Preview
 
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Database that are currently
 | **Network Security Perimeter** | [Azure Network Security Perimeter](network-security-perimeter.md) allows organizations to define a logical network isolation boundary for PaaS resources (for example, Azure Storage and SQL Database) that are deployed outside your organization's virtual networks. It restricts public network access to PaaS resources outside of the perimeter, and access can be exempted by using explicit access rules for public inbound and outbound. |
 | **Query editor in the Azure portal** | The [query editor in the Azure portal](query-editor.md) allows you to run queries against your Azure SQL Database directly from a web browser. |
 | **Restart database in the Azure portal** | You can [restart your SQL database or elastic pool](restart-database.md) from the Azure portal. |
+| **Multiple secondaries for failover groups** | You can [configure multiple secondary servers for failover groups](failover-group-sql-db.md#multiple-secondaries) in Azure SQL Database. |
 
 ## General availability (GA)
 
@@ -95,6 +96,12 @@ The following table lists features of Azure SQL Database that have been made gen
 
 Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Database documentation. For previous years, see the [What's new archive](doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new-archive.md).
 
+### January 2026
+
+| Changes | Details |
+| --- | --- |
+| **Multiple secondaries for failover groups** | You can [configure multiple secondary servers for failover groups](failover-group-sql-db.md#multiple-secondaries) in Azure SQL Database. |
+
 ### November 2025
 
 | Changes | Details |

azure-sql/database/failover-group-configure-sql-db.md

@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 ---
-title: Configure a failover group
+title: Configure a Failover Group
 titleSuffix: Azure SQL Database
 description: Learn how to configure a failover group for a single or pooled database in Azure SQL Database by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, and the Azure CLI.
 author: rajeshsetlem
 ms.author: rsetlem
 ms.reviewer: wiassaf, mathoma, randolphwest, mahyon
-ms.date: 08/05/2025
+ms.date: 01/29/2026
 ms.service: azure-sql-database
 ms.subservice: high-availability
 ms.topic: how-to
@@ -484,6 +484,11 @@ For more information on how to configure outbound access and what IP to use in t
 > [!IMPORTANT]  
 > To guarantee business continuity during regional outages you must ensure geographic redundancy for both frontend components and databases.
 
+## Multiple secondaries
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]  
+> Multiple secondaries for failover groups is a preview feature that is not recommended for production workloads. For more information, see [Multiple secondaries for failover groups](failover-group-sql-db.md#multiple-secondaries).
+
 ## Permissions
 
 Permissions for a failover group are managed via [Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)](/azure/role-based-access-control/overview).

azure-sql/database/failover-group-sql-db.md

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 ---
-title: Failover groups overview & best practices
+title: Failover Groups Overview & Best Practices
 description: Failover groups let you manage geo-replication and automatic / coordinated failover of a group of databases on a server for both single and pooled database in Azure SQL Database.
 author: WilliamDAssafMSFT
 ms.author: wiassaf
-ms.reviewer: rsetlem, mathoma
-ms.date: 01/24/2025
+ms.reviewer: rsetlem, mathoma, mahyon, randolphwest
+ms.date: 01/29/2026
 ms.service: azure-sql-database
 ms.subservice: high-availability
 ms.topic: best-practice
@@ -169,6 +169,20 @@ If an outage occurs in the primary region, recent transactions might not have be
 
 When failover groups are configured with a Microsoft-managed failover policy, then forced failover to the geo-secondary server is initiated during a disaster scenario as per the defined grace period. Failback to the old primary must be initiated manually. 
 
+## Multiple secondaries
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]  
+> Multiple secondaries for failover groups is a preview feature that is not recommended for production workloads.
+
+Each failover group can support multiple secondary servers in the same or different regions. This configuration provides additional options for disaster recovery and enables read-only workloads to be distributed across multiple regions. When configuring multiple secondaries, consider the following:
+
+- Up to four secondary servers can be specified for each failover group.
+- Each secondary server can be in the same or a different region from the primary server and from each other.
+- Each secondary server maintains its own geo-replication link with the primary server.
+- Failover can be initiated to any of the secondary servers.
+- The read-only listener can be configured to only one of the secondary servers and must be to a secondary in a different region in order to properly serve read-only workloads.
+- Chaining (creating a geo-replica of a geo-replica) is not supported with this configuration.
+
 ## Permissions and limitations
 
 Review the configure failover group guide for a list of [permissions](failover-group-configure-sql-db.md#permissions) and [limitations](failover-group-configure-sql-db.md#limitations).