We’re pleased to share a summary of the Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server announcements from Microsoft Build 2024 and last month, as well as the latest roadmap of upcoming features!

June 2024 Live webinar

These updates and the latest roadmap are also covered in our Monthly Live Webinar on YouTube (Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel!), which streams the second Wednesday of every month, at 7:30 AM Pacific time. Below is a link to the session recording of the live webinar we delivered earlier this week:

May 2024 updates and announcements

Microsoft Copilot in Azure: Unlock the benefits of Azure Database for MySQL with your AI companion (Public Preview)

We’re excited to announce Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure Database for MySQL. Microsoft Copilot in Azure is an AI-powered tool that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) and the Azure control plane to help you get answers to your general questions and receive high quality recommendations to real-time problems. With this new integration with Azure Database for MySQL, you can converse with Microsoft Copilot in Azure to discover new features, determine when to enable new features to supplement your own scenarios, learn from summarized tutorials to enable features or build applications, and obtain tips and best practice recommendations to avoid issues.

Learn more: Announcement blog | Demo video

Build RAG applications with Azure OpenAI and MySQL with Azure AI Search

We’re excited to announce that you can now create Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications using Azure OpenAI and Azure Database for MySQL with Azure AI Search.

You can combine the smart, human-like responses of Azure OpenAI with MySQL’s powerful database management and Azure AI Search’s advanced search capabilities, making it easier to build apps that deliver relevant info quickly and efficiently. If you’re running applications (content management systems (CMS), e-commerce applications, or gaming sites) with data hosted in Azure Database for MySQL, enhance your user experience by building generative AI search and chat applications using LLMs available in Azure OpenAI and vector storage and indexing provided by Azure AI Search. Unleash the power of your data hosted on MySQL with the simple and seamless AI integrations on Azure!

Learn more: Demo video and sample architecture | RAG in Azure AI Search documentation

Achieve 2x increase in throughput using Accelerated Logs in Business Critical service tier (General Availability)

We’re excited to announce the General Availability of Accelerated Logs, a feature that significantly boosts performance for write heavy workloads, offering up to a 2x improvement in throughput, out of the box, with no additional cost or application changes required. By reducing latency and enhancing data access speeds, the Accelerated Logs feature ensures that your mission-critical applications run more efficiently and smoothly on the Business Critical service tier. Try out this new feature to experience the difference in your workload performance!

Learn more: Documentation | Announcement blog | Demo video

Expand storage up to 32TB (General Availability) 

You can now expand storage up to 32TB for your workloads using the Business Critical service tier. With storage auto-grow up to 32TB and auto-scale IOPs up to 80K, you can now run your large, growing mission-critical workloads worry-free on Azure!

Learn more: Announcement blog | Demo video

On-demand backup and export (Public Preview)

With Public Preview of the on-demand backup and export feature, you can now easily export a physical backup of your MySQL flexible server to an Azure storage account (Azure blob storage) with just a few clicks on the Azure portal or with a single CLI command whenever you want. After exporting backups to blob storage, you can use them for multiple purposes, including data recovery, redundancy, and availability, auditing, compliance, or to avoid vendor lock in.

Learn more: Documentation | Announcement blog | Demo video

Azure Database for MySQL Import supports Percona XtraBackup for external migrations to Flexible Server (General Availability)

Azure MySQL Import enables you to migrate your MySQL on-premises or Virtual Machine (VM) workload seamlessly to Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server. It takes advantage of a user-provided physical backup file (taken using Percona XtraBackup) and restores the source server’s physical data files to the target server offering a simple and fast migration path. Based on user inputs, the feature takes up the responsibility of provisioning your target flexible server, then restoring the user-provided physical backup of the source server stored in the Azure Blob storage account to the target Flexible Server instance.

Learn more: Documentation  | Announcement blog

Azure DMS: MySQL consistent snapshot without locks (Public Preview)

MySQL Consistent Snapshot is a new feature that allows users to take a Consistent Snapshot of a MySQL server without losing data integrity at source because of ongoing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations. Transactional consistency is achieved without the need to set the source server to read-only mode through this feature. That is, with this feature, we don’t take a read lock on the server. We instead read tables at different point in time, while keeping track of the different binlog positions of each table. This aids to reconcile the tables towards the end of the initial load by performing replication in catchup mode to get a consistent snapshot.

Learn more: Documentation | Announcement blog

Latest feature roadmap

Feature

Description

Release status

Coming soon! 
(Tentative*)

On-demand backup and export

This feature provides you with the ability to export at-moment physical backup of the server to an Azure storage account (Azure blob storage) using an Azure CLI command.  After export, these backups can be used for data recovery, migration, data redundancy and availability, or auditing. Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q3 CY24

Flexible maintenance options

Building upon our existing system-managed and custom-managed maintenance windows, the following new flexible maintenance options aim to elevate user convenience and operational flexibility in server maintenance: 

Reschedule window: Tailor maintenance schedules to suit your business rhythm. 

On-demand maintenance: Instantly initiate maintenance activities using the Reschedule now option.  

Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q3 CY24

Near-zero downtime maintenance for HA servers

This feature is designed to substantially reduce maintenance downtime for HA-enabled servers, ensuring that in most cases, maintenance downtime is expected to be between 40 to 60 seconds. This capability is pivotal for businesses that demand high availability and minimal interruption in their database operations. Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability 

in Q3 CY24

Virtual Canary

The Virtual Canary feature is an exciting solution for Azure MySQL users who prioritize staying at the forefront of technology by making sure that their servers always run the most current version. Servers opted in for virtual canary receive maintenance updates earlier in advance. You can also take advantage of the feature as an opportunity to perform an additional layer of update testing on your dev, test, or staging servers to help avoid workload-specific issues like application-level compatibility issues. The feature thus offers an efficient way to manage updates, align testing and production environments, and maintain operational stability with minimal disruption. 

–

Public Preview

in Q3 CY24

Long Term Retention of Backups

Previously with Azure Database for MySQL, you could retain automated backups and on-demand backups for up to 35 days. With Long Term Retention, you can now retain the backups up to 10 years, further accommodating your audit and compliance needs. Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability
in Q3 CY24

Error Logs (in Server Logs)

This feature allows you to maintain MySQL error log files under Server logs and download them for up to seven days. These error logs can help you efficiently identify and troubleshoot performance and reliability issues, and proactively detect and respond to unauthorized access attempts, failed login attempts, and other security-related events. Learn more.

Public Preview

General Availability
in Q3 CY24

MySQL Discovery & Assessment in Azure Migrate

With this functionality, you can use Azure Migrate to discover MySQL servers in your environment, assess them by identifying their compatibility for moving to Azure Database for MySQL, and receive compute and storage SKU recommendations along with their costs. Learn more.

Private Preview

Public Preview

in Q3 CY24

*The roadmap features and dates are tentative and subject to changes. Please stay tuned for continuous updates.

Conclusion

As we continue to work on new features and functionalities, your feedback is very critical for our improvement. If you wish to enroll in Private Preview for any of the above features, or if you have any suggestions for or queries about our service, email us at AskAzureDBforMySQL@service.microsoft.com.

To learn more about what’s new with Flexible Server, see What’s new in Azure Database for MySQL – Flexible Server. Stay tuned for more updates and announcements by following us on social media: YouTube | LinkedIn | X.

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