Cloud SQL for SQL Server release notes

Support for the northamerica-south1 (Mexico) region.

You can now create custom organization policies for the BackupRun resource in Cloud SQL instances. In addition, more fields in the Instances resource are available to create custom organization policies. For more information, see Add custom organization policies.

You can now have Cloud SQL create a Private Service Connect endpoint automatically instead of creating the endpoint manually after the instance is created. You use this endpoint to access a Cloud SQL instance through a VPC network. For more information, see Connect to an instance using Private Service Connect. This feature is available in Preview.

You can now view the size of a backup for a Cloud SQL instance.

When you run the backupRuns.GET API or the gcloud sql backups describe command, the maxChargeableBytes parameter now appears in the response. This parameter contains the maximum number of bytes that you can be charged for a backup.

You can now create a read replica for an instance that has private services access configured for it and connector enforcement enabled for it. For more information, see Connect using Cloud SQL Language Connectors.

Cloud SQL configures the max server memory (mb) flag based on the instance size automatically by limiting the amount of memory that SQL Server can allocate for its internal pools. For more information, see Configure database flags.

You can export the transaction logs for point-in-time recovery (PITR) that Cloud SQL stores in Cloud Storage. This feature is in Preview.

You can now configure server certificate authority (CA) mode when you create a Cloud SQL instance. With server CA mode, you have two options:

• Per-instance CA: this is the default configuration. With this option, an internal CA dedicated to each Cloud SQL instance signs the server certificate for that instance.
• Shared CA: with this option, the Cloud SQL instance uses a CA hierarchy consisting of a root CA and subordinate server CAs managed by Cloud SQL and hosted on Google Cloud Certificate Authority Service (CA Service). The subordinate server CAs in a region sign the server certificates and are shared across instances in the region.

For more information about each option, see Certificate authority (CA) hierarchies. This feature is in Preview.

You can now use the gcloud sql instances patch command to update the time zone of your Cloud SQL for SQL Server instance after you create the instance. Previously, you could only set a custom time zone for a SQL Server instance when you first created the instance. For more information about setting the time zone for a Cloud SQL for SQL Server instance, see About instance settings.

For Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition, you can set the number of days of retained transaction logs from 1 to 35. For more information, see Use point-in-time recovery (PITR).

You can now provide access to Cloud SQL Studio by granting a new IAM role, Cloud SQL Studio User (roles/cloudsql.studioUser), instead of using the Cloud SQL Admin IAM role.

For more information about using Cloud SQL Studio, see Manage your data using Cloud SQL Studio.

When you clone your zonal instance, you can now specify a preferred zone for the instance. You can also specify preferred primary and secondary zones for your regional instance. If the zones for your instance go down in the future, then Cloud SQL can assign the preferred zones to the instance, and you don't experience downtime. For more information, see Clone instances.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server now offers two editions of Cloud SQL to support your various business and application needs: Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition and Cloud SQL Enterprise edition. Each edition provides different performance and availability characteristics to meet the needs of your applications.

Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition has new machines for better performance, higher availability, and advanced disaster recovery. Existing instances become Cloud SQL Enterprise edition for SQL Server instances with no changes to pricing or features. You can upgrade existing instances to the Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus edition in-place using the Google Cloud Console, the gcloud CLI, or the API with minimal downtime.

For more information about Cloud SQL editions, see Introduction to Cloud SQL editions.

You can now use Extended Events (XEvents) on your Cloud SQL for SQL Server instance to monitor, identify, and troubleshoot the performance of the databases on your instance.

You can now create custom organization policies for Cloud SQL instances. For more information, see Add custom organization policies.

Cloud SQL Studio is now generally available. For more information, see Manage your data using Cloud SQL Studio.

You can now search for and manage your Cloud SQL resources by using Dataplex Catalog. For more information about the integration of Cloud SQL and Dataplex Catalog, see Manage your Cloud SQL resources using Dataplex Catalog.

You can now use the gcloud sql instances describe command or the SQL Admin API to retrieve a list of database versions that are available to your SQL Server instance for upgrade. For more information, see Plan a major version upgrade.

You can now choose to receive a maintenance notification 5 weeks before the maintenance update of your Cloud SQL instance is scheduled to occur. This option is named Week 5.

In addition, some labels in the Google Cloud Console have been renamed to align with this new option:

• Order of update is renamed to Maintenance timing
• Earlier is renamed to Week 1
• Later is renamed to Week 2

For more information, see Maintenance settings and Find and set maintenance windows.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server now supports storage of point-in-time recovery (PITR) transaction logs in Cloud Storage.

The following Gemini in Databases features are now available in Public Preview:

• Database Center: an AI-assisted dashboard that gives you one centralized view across your entire database fleet.
• Cloud SQL Studio: lets authorized users interact directly with the SQL database and run SQL queries from the Google Cloud console to access and manipulate data.
• 9 new database insight recommendations.

To learn how to enable and activate Gemini in Databases, see Set up Gemini in Databases.

You can now use SSL mode instead of the legacy require_ssl setting to specify the encryption requirements for connections to your Cloud SQL for SQL Server instances. For more information, see Enforce SSL/TLS encryption.

You can now use Private Service Connect to connect to a Cloud SQL for SQL Server instance. This solution allows you to connect to the instance from multiple VPC networks that belong to different groups, teams, projects, or organizations.

Private Service Connect includes support for cross-region read replicas. You can also choose an availability type (REGIONAL or ZONAL) for Private Service Connect-enabled instances.

All features are in GA.

Cloud SQL now supports SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on your instances. For more information, see Use SSRS for creating reports.

You can now upgrade your Cloud SQL instances to use the new network architecture to get additional capabilities not available in the old network architecture. For more information, see Upgrade an instance to the new network architecture.

Cloud SQL now automatically updates your read replicas when you perform self-service maintenance on the primary instance. For more information, see Self-service maintenance.

You can now use Private Service Connect to connect to a Cloud SQL for SQL Server instance. This solution allows you to connect to the instance from multiple VPC networks that belong to different groups, teams, projects, or organizations.

You can also choose an availability type (REGIONAL or ZONAL) for Private Service Connect-enabled instances.

All features are in Preview. For more information, see Connect to an instance using Private Service Connect.

Support for africa-south1 (Johannesburg) region.

Cloud SQL supports the bulk insert functionality of SQL Server for importing data. This functionality is supported only on SQL Server 2022.

For more information, see Use bulk insert for importing data.

You can now import transaction log backups. This can help you reduce downtime when migrating to Cloud SQL using backups.

Cloud SQL supports the preview version of the enable-high-availability recommender. This service proactively generates recommendations that help you bring your important instances within SLA by providing data redundancy. This might be helpful during a zonal outage or when an instance runs out of memory. For more information, see Improve instance reliability by enabling high availability.

Support for me-central2 (Dammam) region.

Support for europe-west10 (Berlin) region.

You can now re-encrypt an existing Cloud SQL CMEK-enabled primary instance or replica with a new primary key version.

Cloud SQL now supports multiple categories of API rate quotas. Rate quotas for each category are imposed per minute, per project, per region, and per user. For more information about rate quotas for each category, see Quotas and limits.

The Cloud SQL Node.js Language Connector is now available for public preview.

Cloud SQL now supports default maintenance windows for your instances. With this release, an instance without a user-specified maintenance window is maintained outside of the typical business hours for the time zone that the instance is deployed in.

Cloud SQL now supports non-RFC 1918 IP address ranges, including privately used public IP addresses. This enables you to create instances and replicas in a non-RFC 1918 IP address range. Additionally, you can connect to an instance from an application that is running in a non-RFC 1918 IP address range.

Cloud SQL now supports SQL Server 2022. The default version continues to be SQL Server 2019 Standard. For more information, see Database versions and version policies.

You can now import and export differential database backups. This can help you import and export data more frequently, reducing migration downtime.

The Cloud SQL Proxy Operator is now generally available. To learn more about the Cloud SQL Proxy Operator, see About the Cloud SQL Proxy Operator.

You can now use the point-in-time-recovery (PITR) feature and read replicas on the same primary instance. For more information, see Point-in-time Recovery.

You can now disable simultaneous multithreading (SMT) while creating or editing instances and read replicas. This might reduce your SQL Server licensing fees. To understand the impact of disabling SMT on your instance's performance, we recommend that you perform load testing on your instance.

Support for me-central1 (Doha) region.

Cloud SQL supports the SqlPackage utility of SQL Server for importing and exporting data.

Cloud SQL supports the bcp utility of SQL Server for importing and exporting data.

The changes in the September 15, 2022 Release Notes entry for read replica maintenance are now available. Cloud SQL read replicas follow the maintenance settings for the primary instance, including the maintenance window, rescheduling, and the deny maintenance period. During the maintenance event, Cloud SQL maintains the replicas before maintaining the primary instance. For more information, see How does maintenance affect read replicas?

Cloud SQL now exposes 38 new metrics. These metrics improve observability of Cloud SQL for SQL Server instances, helping you investigate performance issues and resource bottlenecks. You can find these metrics in the Metrics explorer within the Monitoring dashboard.

For more information about these metrics, see Cloud SQL Metrics.

Cloud SQL now supports the Linked Servers functionality of SQL Server. You can use this capability to integrate data from multiple sources and distribute queries across multiple servers. To learn more, see About linked servers.

The Cloud SQL Active Directory (AD) Diagnosis tool helps you troubleshoot issues that you might face while connecting to AD-enabled Cloud SQL for SQL Server instances, using an on-premises AD domain.

Support for europe-west12 (Turin) region.

Cloud SQL now supports the ability to get details for a Cloud SQL user for a database instance using the API or gcloud. To learn more about the new method, see Cloud SQL Admin API REST Resource.

The Cloud SQL Proxy Operator is now available in public preview. The Cloud SQL Proxy Operator is an open-source Kubernetes operator that automates connecting workloads in a GKE cluster to Cloud SQL databases. To learn more about the Cloud SQL Proxy Operator, see About the Cloud SQL Proxy Operator.

The Cloud SQL Auth proxy is a utility for ensuring secure connections to your Cloud SQL instances. The v2 release offers improvements in performance, stability, and telemetry. Among the new features, there's support for:

• Metrics and tracing with Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Trace
• Support for Prometheus
• Service account impersonation
• Separate Dialer functionality released as the Cloud SQL Go Connector
• Configuration with environment variables
• Fully POSIX-compliant flags

We recommend all customers upgrade to v2 and have released a migration guide. For more information, see Cloud SQL Auth proxy.

Cloud SQL supports the preview version of the Underprovisioned instance recommender. This service helps you avoid bottlenecks from high CPU and memory usage and minimize the likelihood of out-of-memory events. It gives you recommendations to resize your instances to a machine tier that better suits your workload.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server enables you to use point-in-time recovery.

Point-in-time recovery helps you recover an instance to a specific point in time. For example, if an error causes a loss of data, you can recover a database to its state before the error occurred. This feature is generally available.

Cloud SQL now supports viewing an audit log for an automated backup of an instance to verify whether the backup is completed successfully. You can also configure a log-based alert so that a user can be notified of the backup's status.

You can use striped import and striped export to reduce the time needed for BAK file operations and for other purposes. This feature is generally available.

When you create an instance, you can set a permanent time zone for the instance. This feature is generally available.

Terraform is supported when you use self-service maintenance.

Cloud SQL allows the re-use of an instance name immediately after the instance is deleted. For more information, see the Cloud SQL for SQL Server FAQ.

Cloud SQL read replicas now follow the maintenance settings for the primary instance, including the maintenance window, rescheduling, and the deny maintenance period. During the maintenance event, Cloud SQL maintains the replicas before maintaining the primary instance. For more information, see How does maintenance affect read replicas?

Support for me-west1 (Tel Aviv).

By enabling instance deletion protection, you can prevent the accidental removal of Cloud SQL instances. This functionality is generally available.

For more information, see Prevent deletion of an instance.

The database major version upgrade feature of Cloud SQL for SQL Server is generally available. For more information, see Upgrade the database major version in-place.

The July maintenance changelog is now available. For more information, use the links at Maintenance changelog.

A second June maintenance changelog is now available. For more information, use the links at Maintenance changelog.

You can enable an instance to publish to a subscriber that is external (or internal) to Cloud SQL. In this scenario, Cloud SQL for SQL Server can act as a publisher to an external subscriber. This functionality, which is generally available, uses transactional replication.

For more information, see Configure external replicas.

In Cloud SQL, you can use SQL Server Audit capabilities to track and log server-level and database-level events. This functionality is generally available.

For more information, see SQL Server database auditing.

Cloud SQL now supports faster machine type changes, with connectivity dropping to less than 60 seconds. For more information, see Impact of changing instance settings.

The June maintenance changelog is now available. For more information, use the links at Maintenance changelog.

An addendum to the May maintenance changelog shows additional security patches. For more information, use the links at Maintenance changelog.

Support for us-south1 (Dallas).

Support for us-east5 (Columbus).

New maintenance versions are now available through self-service maintenance. See the maintenance changelog to learn more about these new maintenance versions.

Support for europe-west9 (Paris).

New maintenance versions are now available through self-service maintenance. See the maintenance changelog to learn more about these new maintenance versions.

The following Cloud SQL recommenders that help you optimize your database costs are now generally available:

• Idle database instance recommender: Identifies idle database instances in your project and provides recommendations about the savings that you can make by shutting them down.

• Overprovisioned database instance recommender: Identifies overprovisioned database instances in your project and provides recommendations about the savings that you can make by rightsizing these instances.

You can now accept a maintenance update on your instance outside of the normal flow of scheduled maintenance.

While Cloud SQL schedules maintenance updates once every few months to ensure you have the latest maintenance version, you might want to use self-service maintenance if:

• You need an update sooner than your next scheduled maintenance event.
• You want to catch up to the latest maintenance version after skipping your most recent scheduled maintenance event.
• You want to gain more control over when maintenance is applied

Cloud SQL now supports maintenance changelogs. Maintenance changelogs provide information about updates available in new maintenance versions, such as database minor version upgrades and patches for security vulnerabilities. For links to current maintenance changelogs for each major database version, see Cloud SQL maintenance changelogs.

Support for europe-west8 region (Milan).

Customer-managed encryption key (CMEK) organization policy constraints are now available in Preview.

• constraints/gcp.restrictNonCmekServices allows you to control which resources require the use of CMEK.
• constraints/gcp.restrictCmekCryptoKeyProjects allows you to control the projects from which a Cloud KMS key can be used to validate requests.

You can use both constraints together to enforce the use of CMEK from allowed projects.

To learn more, see Customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) organization policies. To add CMEK organization policies now, see Add Cloud SQL organization policies.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server supports in-place upgrades in Preview. You can upgrade your instance's major version or edition. For more information, see Upgrade the database major version in-place.

If your primary instance uses a private IP address, you can now select an allocated IP range for clones and replicas created from the instance.

Cloud SQL now supports the use of tags on instances. Tags are key-value pairs you can apply to your resources, such as a project or a Cloud SQL instance, which are used for fine-grained access control. To learn more, see Access control with Google Cloud tags. To use tags now, see Attach and manage tags on Cloud SQL instances.

Cross-region replication is now generally available in Cloud SQL for SQL Server.

You can use replication to scale the use of data in a database without degrading performance. Other reasons include migrating or maintaining data duplicates between regions.

For more information, see Replication in Cloud SQL.

SQL Server 2019 is now the default version. See Database versions and version policies.

The Key Access Justifications (KAJ) feature is now generally available in Cloud SQL. You can use KAJ as part of Cloud External Key Manager (EKM). KAJ enables you to view the reason for each Cloud EKM request. Additionally, based on the justification provided, you can automatically approve or deny a request. For related information, see the Overview.

You can now see the database minor version when viewing information about an instance. See Database versions and version policies for a list of the latest supported versions.

A new feature enables more flexibility for integrating Cloud SQL for SQL Server with Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory. You can integrate your SQL Server instance with a managed AD domain located in a different project.

Support for southamerica-west1 (Santiago) region.

Access Approval is now GA for Cloud SQL. Access Approval enables you to require explicit approval before Google Support may access your database for support purposes.To learn about access approval, see Overview of Access Approval. To set up access approval now, see the Access Approval Quickstart.

Cloud SQL supports the preview version of two recommenders that help you optimize your database costs:

• Idle database instance recommender: Identifies idle database instances in your project and provides recommendations about the savings that you can make by shutting them down.

• Overprovisioned database instance recommender: Identifies overprovisioned database instances in your project and provides recommendations about the savings that you can make by rightsizing these instances.

When a database instance is nearly out of storage capacity, it's automatically stopped to prevent the loss of information. For more information, see Stopping an instance.

The Cloud SQL out-of-disk recommender is now generally available. This feature proactively generates recommendations that help you reduce the risk of downtime that might be caused by your instances running out of disk space.

Cloud SQL now supports IAM Conditions.

You can use IAM Conditions to define and enforce conditional, attribute-based access control for Google Cloud resources, including Cloud SQL instances. See Overview of IAM Conditions for more information.

The Cloud SQL Admin API v1 is now generally available. It is and will continue to be compatible with the v1beta4 version. There is no requirement to migrate from v1beta4 to the v1 Admin API.

Support for northamerica-northeast2-a,b,c (Toronto) region.

Support for asia-south2 (Delhi) region.

Integration of SQL Server with Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory is generally available.

This provides capabilities for authentication, authorization, and more.

Joining an instance to a managed Active Directory domain enables you to log in to your SQL Server instances using Windows Authentication. Additionally, you can integrate with your on-premises AD domains by establishing a trust with the Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server now supports SQL Server 2019. The default version continues to be SQL Server 2017 Standard. See Database versions and version policies.

Cloud SQL storage limits are now increased to support up to 64 TB. See Cloud SQL storage limits for more information.

A preview enables you to use replication in Cloud SQL for SQL Server. Additionally, the preview enables you to make cross-region replicas.

You can use replication to scale the use of data in a database without degrading performance. Other reasons include migrating or maintaining data duplicates between regions.

For more information, see Replication in Cloud SQL.

Support for australia-southeast2 (Melbourne) region.

Cloud SQL now offers faster maintenance, with connectivity dropping for less than 120 seconds on average.

Cloud SQL supports the preview version of the out-of-disk recommender. This feature proactively generates recommendations that help you reduce the risk of downtime that might be caused by your instances running out of disk space. These recommendations can be applied when a Cloud SQL instance is trending towards the storage limit.

The following version upgrade applies to Cloud SQL for SQL Server:

• SQL Server 2017 is upgraded from 14.0.3257.3 to 14.0.3370.1

If you use maintenance windows, the new version will be available after your maintenance update. For information about maintenance windows, and to manage maintenance updates, see Finding and setting maintenance windows.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server enables you to perform change data capture (CDC) operations for your Cloud SQL instances. General information about CDC in SQL Server is here.

CDC is available for the following Cloud SQL for SQL Server database versions:

• SQL Server 2017 Standard
• SQL Server 2017 Enterprise

After connecting to an instance, the sqlserver user can do many CDC operations. The functions include (and are not limited to) the following:

• cdc.fn_cdc_get_all_changes_<capture_instance>
• Sys.fn_cdc_get_max_lsn

To turn on this feature for a database, run this command:

exec msdb.[dbo].[gcloudsql_cdc_enable_db] 'demo'

To turn off this feature for a database, run this command: exec msdb.[dbo].[gcloudsql_cdc_disable_db] 'demo'

Cloud SQL for SQL Server enables you to perform common operations on a tempdb database.

After you connect to an instance, the sqlserver user can manage the tempdb files. Specifically, the user has the CONTROL permission on the tempdb database, and can do many operations, including (and not limited to) the following:

    *   ALTER DATABASE [tempdb] ADD FILE
    *   ALTER DATABASE [tempdb] REMOVE

You can integrate Cloud SQL for SQL Server with Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory.

Authentication, authorization, and more are available. For example, joining an instance to a managed Active Directory domain enables you to log in using Windows Authentication. Additionally, you can integrate with your on-premises AD domains by establishing a trust.

Support for europe-central2 (Warsaw ).

The Cloud SQL Admin API v1beta4 is now generally available. The URL for the Admin API will continue to refer to v1beta4 for backward compatibility. To start using the Cloud SQL Admin API now, see Using the Cloud SQL Admin API.

Cloud SQL now exposes the metric database/memory/total_usage. This metric provides visibility into the database working set (including buffer cache). You can find this metric in the Metrics explorer within the Monitoring dashboard.

For more information about database/memory/total_usage, see Cloud SQL Metrics.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server now supports retention settings for automated backups. You can configure retention of your automated backups for shorter or longer periods (1 to 365 days). The default setting remains 7 days.

Cloud SQL now offers "deny maintenance periods". With deny maintenance periods, you can prevent automatic maintenance from occurring during a specific time period. For example, the end-of-year holiday season is a time of peak load that requires heightened focus on infrastructure stability for many retail businesses. By setting a deny maintenance period from mid-October to mid-January, these businesses can prevent planned upgrades from Cloud SQL during their busiest time of year.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server enables you to set a default collation value for databases in an instance. This collation value is a default for sorting rules, case, and accent sensitivity. You can set this value through the Cloud Console, the gcloud command, and the Cloud SQL Admin API.

Cloud SQL for SQL Server supports cloning using the Cloud Console, the gcloud command, and the Cloud SQL Admin API. When you clone an instance, you create an independent copy of the source instance.

Committed use discounts (CUDs) are now available to purchase for Cloud SQL. CUDs provide discounted prices in exchange for your commitment to use a minimum level of resources for a specified term. With committed use discounts for Cloud SQL, you can earn a deep discount off your cost of use in exchange for committing to continuously use database instances in a particular region for a 1- or 3-year term. See the documentation for more details.

Support for asia-southeast2 region (Jakarta).

Support for us-west4 region (Las Vegas).

Cloud SQL now supports 96-core machine types for MySQL, Postgres, and SQL Server instances. For pricing-related information, see the Pricing page.

Cloud SQL instances using private IP are now accessible across regions, at the regular cross-region network egress cost.

Support for us-west3 region (Salt Lake City).

Cloud SQL for SQL Server now is generally available. Additionally, Cloud SQL for SQL Server includes new security and performance enhancements. To create SQL Server instances, see Creating Instances.

Support for asia-northeast3 region (Seoul).

Cloud SQL now supports VPC Service Controls, which let you add a service perimeter around the Cloud SQL Admin API and host project for Cloud SQL instances to reduce the risk of data exfiltration. To learn more about using VPC Service Controls with Cloud SQL, see Configuring VPC Service Controls.

You can now use Cloud VPN with Cloud SQL. To get started, see Using a VPN with Cloud SQL.

Connection organization policies for Cloud SQL give you the ability to set policies that control access to and from Cloud SQL instances. To learn more about this feature, see Connection organization policies. To use this feature, see Setting organization policies for Cloud SQL.

Cloud SQL now offers notifications for upcoming maintenance. See the Overview of maintenance on Cloud SQL instances. To find out how to sign up for notifications and check your instances for upcoming maintenance, see Finding and setting maintenance windows.

Cloud SQL now supports Access Transparency. As part of Google's long-term commitment to security and transparency, you can use Access Transparency, which provides you with logs of actions that Google staff have taken when accessing your data. To learn more about Access Transparency, see the Overview of Access Transparency.

Cloud SQL now supports customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK). With CMEK, you can encrypt Cloud SQL instances using a key you manage. To learn more about CMEK, see the Overview of customer managed encryption keys (CMEK). To start using CMEK, see Using customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK).

The beta version of Cloud SQL for SQL Server is available. To begin creating SQL Server instances, see Creating Instances.