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 the overview.
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 |
|---|---|
| Link from SQL MI to SQL Server | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. |
| 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. |
| Maintenance window advance notifications | Advance notifications for instance maintenance window. |
| 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. |
| Two-way DR with SQL Server 2022 | 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. |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions | March 2024 | Azure Functions supports function triggers for Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Cross-subscription database copy and move | December 2023 | Refresh of database copy and move functionality with added support for cross-subscription operations. |
| Database copy and move | November 2023 | Perform an online database copy or move operation across managed instances. |
| Double log write throughput limit | August 2023 | The max log write throughput limit has doubled for the Business Critical tier, up to 192 MiB/s. |
| XML compression | August 2023 | XML compression for Azure SQL Managed Instance is now generally available. You can use ALTER INDEX to apply XML compression to existing XML indexes. |
| TDS 8.0 support | August 2023 | Azure SQL Managed Instance now supports TDS 8.0 for strict encryption of data in transit. |
| Private endpoints | August 2023 | Establish secure and isolated connectivity between Azure SQL Managed Instance and multiple virtual networks without exposing the entire network infrastructure of your service by using a private endpoint. Review these blog posts on Scenarios with private endpoints and Advanced scenarios with private endpoints to Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
| Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions | May 2023 | Azure Functions supports input and output bindings for the Azure SQL and SQL Server products. |
| License-free standby replica | May 2023 | Save on licensing costs when you designate your geo-secondary replica as Standby. |
| CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT (CETAS) | April 2023 | You can use CETAS to create an external table on top of Parquet or CSV files Azure Blob storage or Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2. CETAS can also export, in parallel, the results of a T-SQL SELECT statement into the created external table. There is potential for data exfiltration risk with these capabilities, so CETAS is disabled by default for Azure SQL Managed Instance. To enable, see CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT (CETAS). |
| Shrink Database and Shrink File with Low Priority | March 2023 | 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. |
Documentation changes
Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation. For previous years, see the What's new archive.
March 2024
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions GA | Azure Functions supports function triggers for Azure SQL Managed Instance. This feature is now generally available. Review Azure SQL triggers for Azure Functions to learn more. |
February 2024
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| OBJECT_ID T-SQL syntax preview | 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. Using the OBJECT_ID syntax to create users and logins in Azure SQL Managed Instance is currently in preview. To learn more, review Microsoft Entra nonunique name support. |
November 2023
| Changes | Details |
|---|---|
| Database copy and move GA | Perform an online database copy or move operation across managed instances. This feature is now generally available. Review Database copy and move to get started. |
| Ledger GA | Ledger in Azure SQL Managed Instance allows you to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. This feature is now generally available. Review Ledger to learn more. |
| SQL Server DR to SQL MI preview | In the event of a disaster, you can recover your SQL Server 2022 database by failing over to SQL Managed Instance, and then failing back to SQL Server 2022 online by using the Managed Instance link. This feature has moved from a limited public preview that required signing up to an open public preview available to everyone. Review Online disaster recovery for SQL Server 2022 to learn more. |
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.