SQL Server technical documentation

SQL Server

What's new

• What's New in SQL Server 2025?
• What's New in Azure SQL Database?
• What's New in Azure SQL Managed Instance?
• What's New in SQL Server on Azure VMs?

Get started

• Try Azure SQL Database for free
• Try Azure SQL Managed Instance for free
• Free SQL tools

Quickstart

• What is SQL Server?
• The Microsoft SQL Database Engine
• Connect to the Database Engine
• Connect and query with SSMS

Get started

• Migrate to SQL Server
• Secure SQL Server
• Monitor SQL Server
• Tune performance
• High availability and disaster recovery
• Educational SQL resources

Download

• SQL Server
• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Deploy

• Install SQL Server
• SQL Server enabled by Azure Arc
• SQL Server on Linux
• SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

Azure SQL & Microsoft Fabric

Overview

• Azure SQL family of products
• Azure SQL Database
• Azure SQL Managed Instance
• SQL Server on Azure Windows VMs
• SQL Server on Azure Linux VMs
• SQL database in Microsoft Fabric
• Connect to Azure SQL

Intelligent applications and AI

Overview

• Overview
• Vectors
• Copilot in SSMS
• Microsoft Copilot in Azure SQL Database
• SQL Server Machine Learning (R & Python)
• Connect to REST API endpoints for a SQL database
• Connect to GraphQL endpoints for a SQL database
• SQL MCP Server

Business Intelligence & Machine Learning

Overview

• Mirroring to Microsoft Fabric
• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
• Azure Data Factory
• Data virtualization with PolyBase

Database design

Overview

• Collation
• Databases
• Data types
• Graph
• Indexes
• Views
• User-defined functions
• Tables

Query data

Overview

• Data virtualization and PolyBase
• Joins
• Full-text search
• Functions
• Fuzzy string matching
• Regular expressions (REGEX)
• Scripting
• Synonyms

Reference

Reference

• Transact-SQL (T-SQL)
• SQL PowerShell
• Sample databases
• Scripting
• System dynamic management views (DMVs)
• Stored procedures