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title description author ms.author ms.reviewer ms.date ms.service ms.subservice ms.topic tags
Overview of SQL Server on Azure Windows Virtual Machines
Learn how to run full editions of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines in the cloud without having to manage any on-premises hardware.
MashaMSFT
mathoma
randolphwest
09/27/2024
azure-vm-sql-server
service-overview
overview
azure-service-management

What is SQL Server on Azure Windows Virtual Machines?

[!INCLUDE appliesto-sqlvm]

[!div class="op_single_selector"]

This article provides an overview of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) on the Windows platform.

If you're new to SQL Server on Azure VMs, check out the SQL Server on Azure VM Overview video from our in-depth Azure SQL video series:

[!VIDEO https://learn.microsoft.com/shows/Azure-SQL-for-Beginners/SQL-Server-on-Azure-VM-Overview-4-of-61/player]

Overview

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines enables you to use full versions of SQL Server in the cloud without having to manage any on-premises hardware. SQL Server virtual machines (VMs) also simplify licensing costs when you pay as you go.

Azure virtual machines run in many different geographic regions around the world. They also offer various machine sizes. The virtual machine image gallery allows you to create a SQL Server VM with the right version, edition, and operating system. This makes virtual machines a good option for many different SQL Server workloads.

Feature benefits

When you register your SQL Server on Azure VM with the SQL IaaS Agent extension you unlock a number of feature benefits. Registering with the extension is completely free.

The following table details the benefits unlocked by the extension:

[!INCLUDE SQL VM feature benefits]

Getting started

To get started with SQL Server on Azure VMs, review the following resources:

Videos

For videos about the latest features to optimize SQL Server VM performance and automate management, review the following Data Exposed videos:

High availability & disaster recovery

On top of the built-in high availability provided by Azure virtual machines, you can also use the high availability and disaster recovery features provided by SQL Server.

To learn more, see the overview of Always On availability groups, and Always On failover cluster instances. For more information, see the business continuity overview.

To get started, see the tutorials for availability groups or preparing your VM for a failover cluster instance.

Licensing

To get started, choose a SQL Server virtual machine image with your required version, edition, and operating system. The following sections provide direct links to the Azure portal for the SQL Server virtual machine gallery images. Change the licensing model of a pay-per-usage SQL Server VM to use your own license. For more information, see How to change the licensing model for a SQL Server VM.

Azure only maintains one virtual machine image for each supported operating system, version, and edition combination. This means that over time images are refreshed, and older images are removed. For more information, see the Images section of the SQL Server VMs FAQ.

Tip

For more information about how to understand pricing for SQL Server images, see Pricing guidance for SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines.

The following table provides a matrix of pay-as-you-go SQL Server images.

Version Operating System
SQL Server 2022 Windows Server 2022
SQL Server 2019 Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019
SQL Server 2017 Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016
SQL Server 2016 Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016
SQL Server 2014 Windows Server 2012 R2
SQL Server 2012 Windows Server 2012 R2

[!INCLUDE appliesto-sqlvm]

To see the available SQL Server on Linux virtual machine images, see Overview of SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (Linux).

It's possible to deploy an older image of SQL Server that isn't available in the Azure portal by using PowerShell. To view all available images by using PowerShell, use the following command:

$Location = "<location>"
Get-AzVMImageOffer -Location $Location -Publisher 'MicrosoftSQLServer'

For more information about deploying SQL Server VMs using PowerShell, view How to provision SQL Server virtual machines with Azure PowerShell.

Important

Older images might be outdated. Remember to apply all SQL Server and Windows updates before using them for production.

Customer experience improvement program (CEIP)

The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) is enabled by default. This periodically sends reports to Microsoft to help improve SQL Server. There's no management task required with CEIP unless you want to disable it after provisioning. You can customize or disable the CEIP by connecting to the VM with remote desktop. Then run the SQL Server Error and Usage Reporting utility. Follow the instructions to disable reporting. For more information about data collection, see the SQL Server Privacy Statement.

Related products and services

Since SQL Server on Azure VMs is integrated into the Azure platform, review resources from related products and services that interact with the SQL Server on Azure VM ecosystem:

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