Azure SQL Managed Instance allows administrators to automatically start and stop instances on a predefined schedule. This feature pauses compute and licensing billing during off-hours while retaining your data, making it an excellent cost-control measure for development, testing, or workloads that do not require 24/7 availability. Note: Stopping a SQL Managed Instance may take a … Read more
When managing an Azure SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI), losing track of the local administrator password or needing to rotate credentials is a common administrative task. Fortunately, the Azure Portal allows administrators to reset the SQL authentication password directly from the instance overview page without requiring direct T-SQL access or server downtime. Follow the below … Read more
Every cloud database administrator fears one thing. You wake up on Monday morning. Your database status shows “Recovery Pending” or “Inaccessible.” The database files still sit on the storage disk. However, nobody can open or read the data from the database. In Azure SQL Managed Instance, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) protects files when stored on … Read more
Artificial intelligence research and enterprise deployment in late 2026 have fundamentally transitioned from a phase of pure generative experimentation to a rigid focus on agentic systems, operational trust, compute efficiency, and scientific discovery. The industry has officially moved from “model thinking” where developers prompt an LLM for a static output to “system orchestration”. In this … Read more
An Azure SQL Managed Instance Pool is a shared cloud infrastructure resource that allows you to pre-provision compute capacity and deploy multiple, smaller Azure SQL Managed Instances into a single underlying virtual cluster. Think of an Azure SQL Managed Instance Pool like a large apartment building: The building itself = the pool (shared infrastructure, pre-provisioned … Read more
Whenever an organization tells me they are migrating their databases to platforms like Azure SQL, AWS RDS, or Google Cloud SQL, one question almost always follows: “Once we are in the cloud, Microsoft or AWS or GCP handles the maintenance, right? Do we still need dedicated SQL managed services or a DBA to manage the … Read more
Running SQL Server on Linux is easier than ever thanks to Docker. In this guide, I’ll walk you through deploying a spot instance VM on Azure, installing Docker, and running SQL Server 2019 Developer edition instance inside a container. The screenshots from the Azure Portal and command prompt will help illustrate the process. I tested … Read more
Download the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) tool onto your machine and connect to SQL Server, whether it’s on-premises or in the cloud. Stop digging through confusing documentation loops to find the exact SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) installer you need. Whether you are looking for the newest release to manage an Azure SQL instance … Read more
Welcome back to another deep dive on Cloud Nerchuko. If you have ever tried setting up a Linked Server from an Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI) to an Azure SQL Database using a System-Assigned Managed Identity, you know that Azure networking can sometimes feel like navigating a maze of invisible walls. Recently, I went through … Read more
When migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI), Linked Servers often become a critical requirement for maintaining cross-environment connectivity. They act as a vital bridge, allowing you to execute queries or call stored procedures across diverse environments whether that is an on-premises database, Azure SQL DB, SQL Server on an Azure VM, or another … Read more