Microsoft turns a cross-platform solution into a convenient alternative for developers and database administrators. Microsoft seems to be closing the gap between Azure Data Studio and SQL Server Management Studio, making the first product a convenient alternative for both developers and database administrators.

I first wrote about Azure Data Studio in December 2017, when a publicly available preview version was released. At that time, the product was called SQL Operations Studio, and its functionality was small and focused exclusively on developers. This event took place shortly after the release of SQL Operations Studio, which opened a whole new audience and market for SQL Server thanks to its Linux compatibility after almost 25 years of existence exclusively in the Windows ecosystem. Entering the Linux market was a bold decision and it was crucial for Microsoft to provide access to an audience that was not often involved with corporate products and especially Windows. The development of SQL Operations Studio was a consequence of this need.

Azure Data Studio remains a cross-platform solution released in three versions: for Windows, Linux and macOS. The functionality of the platform is rapidly evolving, and it is planned that in the end it will be equivalent to the widespread, but already outdated SQL Server Management Studio.

“Azure Data Studio has a common heritage and a forward-looking development plan with SQL Server Management Studio, a very successful and popular tool,” says Wiki Harp, senior program manager for SQL Server tools. – Over time, all SQL Server Management Studio features will be available in Azure Data Studio and the two products will be closely integrated with each other. Today Azure Data Studio is clearly focused on query editing and data development. Also available in Azure Data Studio as extensions are additional very useful administrative functions such as backup, recovery, agent task management and server profiling.

The publicly available version of Azure Data Studio has a wide range of features for development and operations specialists. Microsoft will continue to release pre-release components as the platform evolves and receives monthly updates as part of its ongoing improvement of integration and development of management tools for the data processing platform.

The preliminary level components include:

• importing an unstructured file;
• SQL Server agent;
• SQL Profiler;
• resource browser Azure;
• graphical display of query plan.

Based on the combination of these components, we can conclude that Microsoft is committed to closing the gap between Azure Data Studio and SQL Server Management Studio, making it an attractive alternative for both developers and database administrators. But the company has a long way to go. Today, the backup and recovery features in Azure Data Studio are almost the only database administrator-centric ones, i.e. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) actually remains a tool for SQL Server database administration (along with the Azure data portal for Azure-based SQL administration).

This does not mean that database administrators cannot find applications for Azure Data Studio, but for now the environment is ready for Microsoft Data platform developers, not for administering local instances of SQL Server or one of the many Microsoft Azure offerings.

Getting started with Azure Data Studio

It is very easy to master Azure Data Studio. To get started, you need to do the following:

1. Download and install the tool for the environment that suits your needs. Downloadable Windows, MacOS and Linux components can be found at docs.microsoft.com.
2. Connect to the selected instance. The process is similar to connecting to Azure or the local environment, but there are some differences that can cause difficulties when connecting to Azure. For “cloud” or “terrestrial” installations, enter the appropriate values in the following fields:

• The server.
• Type of authentication (SQL input name or Active Directory based authentication).
• Username.
• Password.
• Database

If you connect to Azure, you should enter the server name in the full format: <server_name>. database. windows.net. If you are connecting to an Azure instance for the first time, you still need to configure the firewall rules that provide access; you will need to contact the appropriate person in your company who can customize the firewall settings for your specific situation. Azure Data Studio provides a recommended IP address or address range to make it easy to create firewall rules. Firewall settings are available from the Azure portal, but not inside Azure Data Studio.

So, now you are connected. Depending on your rights, you can create, configure and develop solutions using SQL Server locally or with one of the Azure-based products: Azure SQL Database, Azure IAAS, Azure SQL Managed Instance, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters and Azure Data Studio Notebooks.

A Tutorial of Azure Data Studio