Azure SQL and Microsoft Fabric

52.1 Azure SQL Family

SQL Server on Azure VM Full control, lift-and-shift, OS access Azure SQL Managed Instance

Near-100% compatibility (Agent, cross-DB queries, CLR) Azure SQL Database

Modern cloud apps, single DBs or elastic pools Azure SQL Edge Retired (Sept 2025) SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

Operational DB integrated with OneLake analytics

52.2 Azure SQL Database Concepts

Purchasing models: DTU vs vCore Service tiers: General Purpose, Business Critical, Hyperscale (up to 128 TB, rapid scale-out)

Compute: provisioned vs serverless (auto-pause, auto-scale) Elastic pools for multi-tenant SaaS

Built-in HA (99.99%+), automatic backups, point-in-time restore (PITR), long-term retention (LTR), geo-restore

Active geo-replication and failover groups Elastic query, elastic jobs, Azure SQL Data Sync

Security: Entra ID, firewall rules, Private Link, Microsoft Defender for SQL, auditing, Ledger, TDE on by default

Intelligent performance: automatic tuning, Query Performance Insight, Intelligent Insights

52.3 Differences from On-Premises SQL Server (Azure SQL Database)

No SQL Agent (use Elastic Jobs or Azure Automation), no cross-database queries (use elastic query), no USE statement to switch databases, no CLR, no FILESTREAM, limited server-level features.

Managed Instance closes most of these gaps.

52.4 Hybrid and Migration

Azure Arc-enabled SQL Server: manage on-prem SQL from Azure, with Entra auth, Defender, and licensing.

Managed Instance link: near-real-time replication between SQL Server 2016+ and MI, usable for DR or migration.

Migration tools: Azure Database Migration Service, Azure Migrate, SqlPackage, Log Replay Service, transactional replication.

52.5 Microsoft Fabric

A unified SaaS analytics platform built on OneLake (Delta Parquet).

Fabric Data Warehouse (T-SQL), Lakehouse with a SQL analytics endpoint, SQL database in Fabric.

Mirroring: replicate Azure SQL, SQL MI, or SQL Server 2016–2025 into OneLake in near real time.