What's new with SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines?

Applies to: SQL Server on Azure VM

When you deploy an Azure virtual machine (VM) with SQL Server installed on it, either manually, or through a built-in image, you can use Azure features to improve your experience. This article summarizes the documentation changes associated with new features and improvements in the recent releases of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs). To learn more about SQL Server on Azure VMs, see the overview.

For updates made in previous years, see the What's new archive.

Warning

Placing tempdb on the local temp disk for Azure VM images with uninitialized ephemeral disks isn't supported. Deployments through the Azure portal might fail, and SQL Server can fail to start. Either use a different VM size, or place tempdb on non-ephemeral storage both when you deploy the SQL Server image through the Azure portal, and when you install SQL Server manually. To learn more, review VM deployment and SQL Server failures.

Preview

The following table lists the features of SQL Server on Azure VMs that are currently in preview.

Feature Details
Modernization Advisor Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal to help you determine if migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance saves you money or optimizes performance.

General availability (GA)

The following table lists features of SQL Server on Azure VMs that have been made generally available (GA) within the last 12 months:

Changes Month Details
Managed identity support for SQL Server 2022 on Azure VM January 2025 Starting with SQL Server 2022 Cumulative Update 17 (CU17), managed identities are supported for SQL Server on Azure VMs (Windows only). Managed identities can be used with SQL Server credentials to back up to and restore SQL Server on Azure VM databases from Azure Blob storage. Support for managed identities also enables functionalities like Extensible Key Management (EKM) with Azure Key Vault (AKV) to be used with SQL Server on Azure VMs.
Azure Update Manager April 2024 Automatically patch multiple SQL Server VMs at scale with the Azure Update Manager integrated in to the SQL virtual machines resource in the Azure portal, including Cumulative Updates.

Documentation changes

Learn about significant changes to the SQL Server on Azure VMs documentation. For previous years, see the What's new archive.

September 2025

Changes Details
New Azure SQL hub Choosing the right Azure SQL service can be challenging. To make this easier, we built the Azure SQL hub, a new home for everything related to Azure SQL in the Azure portal.

Archive

For updates made in previous years, see the What's new archive.

Additional resources

Windows VMs:

Linux VMs:

  • Last updated on