SQL Server
Run Microsoft SQL Server as a managed instance — one server with its own database, storage and backups, reachable from the workloads in your boundary.
A SQL Server instance runs one Microsoft SQL Server in a resource group. It has its own data volume, an administrator login and a database that is created for you when the server first starts. The platform provisions the server, keeps it running, takes its backups and hands you its connection string; what goes into the database is yours.
Editions
The edition is chosen when the instance is created and cannot be changed afterwards in the portal.
| Edition | Licence |
|---|---|
| Developer | Free, licensed for development and test only. The default. |
| Express | Free and licensed for production, capped at 10 GB per database and at limited CPU and memory. |
| Standard | Paid; needs a product key. |
| Enterprise | Paid; needs a product key. |
The Express limits are SQL Server's own: the platform passes the edition to the server and does not check them itself. The product key of a paid edition is stored as a secret in the instance's resource group and never shown again — see License.
Versions
The wizard offers SQL Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019, and the choice is fixed at
creation. Every instance runs the image mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server:2022-latest, whichever
you choose.
Warning
Choosing SQL Server 2019 records 2019 as the instance's version, but the server it runs is SQL Server 2022. Choose SQL Server 2022.
There is no upgrade action.
One server per instance
An instance is a single server: there are no replicas and no failover. When the node it runs on fails, the platform starts the server again on another node and attaches its data volume there — a recovery that typically takes several minutes, not a failover. Protect the data with backups.
What is inside
- The
salogin. The server's administrator login, with a password the platform generates when the instance is created. The connection strings the platform gives out log in assa. The platform has no action to change the password. - The initial database. Created empty, with the name you chose, once the server accepts logins. The connection strings open it.
- The collation. The server collation you chose, or SQL Server's default when you left it empty.
Everything else — schemas, tables, logins with fewer rights — you create yourself, with the Data Explorer or any SQL Server client.
Reaching the instance
- Inside the boundary. The server listens on port 1433 under an in-cluster name made from the instance's name. Every workload in the boundary can open a connection to it; workloads in other boundaries cannot. See Databases.
- From outside the cluster. Only after you turn on Enable External Access, which puts a load balancer in front of the server on port 1433. A list of allowed address ranges can narrow who reaches it.
Clients connect with encryption on, and the connection strings trust the server's own certificate, which is not issued by a certificate authority. See Connect to an instance.
Backups
A backup is a snapshot of the instance's data volume, taken on a schedule or when you ask for one. Restoring one replaces the whole volume. There is no point-in-time recovery, and the platform takes no native SQL Server backups. See Back up and restore.
Data Explorer
The instance page has a T-SQL editor, the Data Explorer, for browsing tables, editing rows and running statements. Every statement is checked against your permissions before it runs, and a statement that changes the schema must pass a dry run first. See Data Explorer.
Choosing a data service
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Microsoft SQL Server compatibility, T-SQL | SQL Server |
| Relational data and transactions in general | PostgreSQL |
| Embeddings and similarity search | Qdrant |
| A cache, sessions, anything that may be lost on a restart | Valkey |