Overview

We are excited to announce the inclusion of the Next-gen General Purpose service tier in target recommendation for assessments of SQL Server instance migration to Azure SQL Managed Instance. The Next-gen General Purpose service tier is more customizable, allowing the migration tools to tailor the recommendation more closely to the resource requirements of the source instance. You can thus unlock additional savings due to the recommended SKU being a better closer fit.

What has changed in Azure SQL Managed Instance?

The recently introduced Next-gen General Purpose service tier of Azure SQL Managed Instance is an evolution of the existing General Purpose tier that provides the following additional benefits to users:

1. Better performance by only upgrading to Next-gen General Purpose from current General Purpose, due to utilization of the latest storage technology
2. More vCore click-stops so you can now correct your compute size in case you had to previously overprovision it (for example: you upgraded from 8 to 16 vCores because you needed more of other resources, but you needed in fact only 10 or 12 vCores) 
3. More IOPS for the same amount of reserved storage. Now you do not have to overprovision storage in order to get more IOPS. 
4. Increased limit for number of databases to 500 so now you can migrate instances with a large number of databases or even consolidate multiple instances to a single Azure SQL Managed Instance

This new service tier provides an opportunity to tailor the target more closely to the requirements of the source SQL Server instance.

What has changed in SQL migration tools?

Azure SQL Migration tools now include this service tier when sizing the target environment for a source SQL Server instance migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance. As noted above, the improved performance limits and more flexible configuration helps unlock additional savings by recommending a configuration that is a better fit and avoiding the need to over-size the target with larger cores just to meet certain requirements such as IOPS. Read more about this service tier.

How to use it?

The improved assessment capability is available across all SQL Server cloud migration tools, namely:

Azure Migrate

Your Azure Migrate appliance automatically detects the availability of the new assessment engine and updates itself. If you have explicitly disabled automatic upgrades for your appliance, please enable it to take advantage of improved assessments. New SQL Server assessments in Azure Migrate will recommend the new Next-gen General Purpose service tier for all SQL Server instances assessed where the source resource requirements can be met at a lower cost as compared to other service tiers. You can also recalculate any existing assessments to use the improved assessment engine.

SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc

SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc will automatically produce Azure migration assessments periodically. Upgrade your extension when you are ready or wait for the automatic upgrade. The assessment generated will recommend the new Next-gen General Purpose service tier for all SQL Server instances assessed where the source resource requirements can be met at a lower cost as compared to other service tiers.

Azure Data Studio

The Azure SQL Migration extension of your Azure Data Studio should be setup to automatically update. If not, you can install the latest version from the extensions manager. Assess your SQL Server instance using the improved assessment engine in the latest Azure SQL Migration extension. The assessment will recommend the new Next-gen General Purpose service tier if the resource requirements can be met at a lower cost as compared to other service tiers.

Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI

Update your Azure PowerShell and Azure CLI to the latest and assess your SQL Server instance using the Azure Database Migration Service automation modules. The assessment will recommend the new Next-gen General Purpose service tier if the resource requirements can be met at a lower cost as compared to other service tiers.

Call to Action

Review the How-To section above to know how you can leverage the improved cloud migration assessment capability of SQL migration tools. Assess your SQL Server instance today to take advantage of the additional savings and plan your journey to Azure with confidence.

• Planning for migration to Azure SQL
• Migration guide: SQL Server to Azure SQL Managed Instance