Compute dedicated to running SQL queries, dashboards and BI tools, available as serverless, pro or classic. Serverless is the recommended type where offered, and every type runs Photon by default.
Also called formerly SQL endpoint, SQL endpoint.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains SQL warehouse in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Dedicated
Running Azure Functions on an App Service plan, which removes the execution time limit and offers VNet integration on Basic and higher tiers.
- Serverless
Compute tier for single Azure SQL databases that scales automatically, pauses when idle and charges by the second. It is offered in General Purpose and Hyperscale, not Business Critical, and reserved capacity does not apply.
- WHERE
Limits a SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE to just the rows meeting a condition. Omit it, and the statement hits every row.
- Agents (classic) API
First-generation Foundry Agent Service API, based on threads, messages and runs. It is deprecated, replaced by conversations and responses, and retires on 31 March 2027.
- Photon
Speeds up SQL and DataFrame workloads on Azure Databricks using a native C++ engine that processes data in vectorised form. SQL warehouses and serverless use it automatically; through the Clusters or Jobs API, choose it by setting
runtime_enginetoPHOTON.
Related terms
- Auto Stop
A SQL warehouse option that shuts the warehouse down after a chosen number of idle minutes. Pro and classic warehouses default to 45 minutes with a floor of 10; serverless ones default to 10.
- CAN MONITOR
Meant for power users, this permission on a SQL warehouse is stronger than CAN USE but weaker than CAN MANAGE. It allows running queries and watching the warehouse, for example through its history of queries and their profiles.
- CONNECT
In SQL Server, the right to open a connection to a database. Fabric's equivalent is Read permission on an item, which allows connecting to a warehouse or SQL endpoint but not querying anything in it.
- IWM
Intelligent workload management, a serverless SQL warehouse capability that forecasts the resources each query will need, holds queries in a queue when capacity runs short and scales out clusters rapidly.
- SQL analytics endpoint access mode
Chooses how security gets enforced on a lakehouse's SQL endpoint. By default (delegated identity), OneLake is read as whoever owns the item, with only T-SQL permissions, RLS, CLS and DDM applying; user's identity instead forwards each caller to OneLake so its security roles take effect.