What is SQL Server on Azure Windows
Virtual Machines?
05/19/2025
Applies to: SQL Server on Azure VM
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:
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:
ﾉ Expand table
Feature Description
Azure portal Unlocks management in the portal, so that you can view all of your SQL Server VMs in
management one place, and enable or disable SQL specific features directly from the portal.
Feature Description
Included with basic registration.
Automated backup Automates the scheduling of backups for all databases for either the default instance
or a properly installed named instance of SQL Server on the VM. For more
information, see Automated backup for SQL Server in Azure virtual machines
(Resource Manager).
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Automatic patching Automatically install Windows and SQL Server security updates (including Cumulative
Updates for SQL Server) to your virtual machine during a configured maintenance
window to avoid updating during peak times for your workload. For more
information, see Automatic patching through Azure Update Manager.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Azure Key Vault Enables you to automatically install and configure Azure Key Vault on your SQL Server
integration VM. For more information, see Configure Azure Key Vault integration for SQL Server
on Azure Virtual Machines (Resource Manager).
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Configure tempdb You can configure your tempdb directly from the Azure portal, such as specifying the
number of files, their initial size, their location, and the autogrowth ratio. Restart your
SQL Server service for the changes to take effect.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Defender for Cloud If you've enabled Microsoft Defender for SQL, then you can view Defender for Cloud
portal integration recommendations directly in the SQL virtual machines resource of the Azure portal.
See Security best practices to learn more.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Extended security Automatically receive security updates for your SQL Server on Azure VMs, up to three
updates years after extended SQL Server lifecycle support ends.
Flexible licensing Save on cost by seamlessly transitioning from the Azure Hybrid Benefit to the pay-as-
you-go licensing model and back again.
Included with basic registration.
Flexible version / If you decide to change the version or edition of SQL Server, you can update the
edition metadata within the Azure portal without having to redeploy the entire SQL Server
VM.
Feature Description
Included with basic registration.
I/O Analysis View an analysis of your I/O performance in the Azure portal to find issues that result
from exceeding virtual machines and data disks limits. This feature is currently in
preview.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Microsoft Entra Enhance the security of your SQL Server VM by using Microsoft Entra ID for
authentication authentication to your SQL Server VM.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
SQL best practices Enables you to assess the health of your SQL Server VMs by using configuration best
assessment practices. For more information, see SQL best practices assessment.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
View disk Allows you to view a graphical representation of the disk utilization of your SQL data
utilization in portal files in the Azure portal.
Requires SQL IaaS Agent extension.
Getting started
To get started with SQL Server on Azure VMs, review the following resources:
Create SQL VM: To create your SQL Server on Azure VM, review the Quickstarts using the
Azure portal, Azure PowerShell or an ARM template. For more thorough guidance, review
the Provisioning guide.
Connect to SQL VM: To connect to your SQL Server on Azure VMs, review the ways to
connect.
Unlock feature benefits: Registering your SQL Server VM with the SQL IaaS Agent extension
unlocks a number of feature benefits, such as automated backup and patching.
Manage SQL VM from the portal: You can manage SQL Server settings directly from the
Azure portal by using the SQL virtual machines resource.
Optimize performance: Use the SQL best practices assessment to validate that you're
following Best practices and use I/O Performance Analysis to investigate I/O issues.
Migrate data: Migrate your data to SQL Server on Azure VMs from SQL Server, Oracle, or
Db2.
Pricing: For information about the pricing structure of your SQL Server on Azure VM, review
the Pricing guidance.
Frequently asked questions: For commonly asked questions, and scenarios, review the FAQ.
Videos
For videos about the latest features to optimize SQL Server VM performance and automate
management, review the following Data Exposed videos:
Caching and Storage Capping
Automate Management with the SQL Server IaaS Agent extension
Use Azure Monitor Metrics to Track VM Cache Health
Get the best price-performance for your SQL Server workloads on Azure VM
Using PerfInsights to Evaluate Resource Health and Troubleshoot
Best Price-Performance with Ebdsv5 Series
Optimally Configure SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines with SQL Assessment
New and Improved SQL Server on Azure VM deployment and management experience
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.
ﾉ Expand table
Version Operating System
SQL Server 2025 Preview Windows Server 2025
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
７ Note
SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 are out of mainstream support and no longer available
from the Azure Marketplace.
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:
PowerShell
$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:
Windows virtual machines: Azure Virtual Machines overview
Storage: Introduction to Microsoft Azure Storage
Networking: Virtual Network overview, IP addresses in Azure, Create a Fully Qualified
Domain Name in the Azure portal
SQL: SQL Server documentation, Azure SQL Database comparison
Related content
Quickstart: Create SQL Server VM in the Azure portal
SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines FAQ
Windows N-tier application on Azure with SQL Server
Run an N-tier application in multiple Azure regions for high availability
