The relational database from Microsoft that organisations host and run themselves, in their own data centres or on VMs. Its engine also sits underneath the Azure SQL services and SQL database in Fabric.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains SQL Server in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Relational database
Tables of rows and columns hold structured data here, one table per entity type, with keys linking the tables together and SQL used to query them.
- Virtual machines
Infrastructure-as-a-service compute giving complete control of the operating system, making it a fit for lift-and-shift moves and for software relying on OS-level pieces like COM.
- Auditing
Azure SQL capability that sends database audit logs to Log Analytics, Event Hubs or a storage account; that account is allowed to be in a different region.
- SQL database in Fabric
Microsoft Fabric's transactional database, running Azure SQL Database's engine with self-tuning built in. Data lands in OneLake almost immediately, where a SQL analytics endpoint makes it queryable.
Related terms
- ALTER ANY EXTERNAL MIRROR
A permission that the account used for mirroring must hold in an Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance or SQL Server source before Fabric can mirror it. Anyone with CONTROL, or in the db_owner role, already has it.
- Always On availability group
High-availability feature of SQL Server that keeps synchronous or asynchronous replicas on different servers or VMs without shared storage. As every replica is a live SQL Server, it is an expensive way to provide DR.
- Automated Backup
Feature of the SQL IaaS Agent extension: SQL Server instances on Azure VMs get backed up into a storage account.
- Azure Cosmos DB Data Migration Tool
Utility that moves data from sources such as SQL Server into Azure Cosmos DB.
- Azure Hybrid Benefit
Licensing benefit that cuts Azure costs by reusing Windows Server or SQL Server licences with Software Assurance, or RHEL and SUSE subscriptions. Ubuntu isn't eligible, nor is the DTU purchasing model of Azure SQL.
- Azure SQL
An umbrella name covering three Azure offerings that share the SQL Server engine: the managed database service, the managed instance, and SQL Server installed on Azure-hosted virtual machines.
- Azure SQL Managed Instance
Fully managed SQL Server instance offering almost complete compatibility, including SQL Agent, CLR and queries across databases; disaster recovery to another region is achieved with auto-failover groups.
- azure/sql-action
Used in GitHub workflows to publish a SQL project or
.dacpacto SQL Server or an Azure SQL database; it is a wrapper round SqlPackage.