On Wednesday, January 29th, several members of the team gathered for an hour of Q&A on SQL database in Fabric. SQL database in Fabric is the first SaaS database in Fabric bringing transactional and analytical data together without compromising application performance, so it’s no surprise that the hour was packed with questions.
Let’s jump right to it, here’s a few great questions from the SQL database in Fabric Ask the Expert session on Microsoft Reactor. Full disclosure – these are just my favorite questions from the hour.
Great question #1
What will happen when the new version of SQL Server appears? Can we choose between versions?
SQL database in Fabric is based on Azure SQL Database, a fully managed and version less database where upgrading, patching, and backups are handled as part of the platform. With SQL database in Fabric, your database is automatically upgraded with each feature rollout. For a reminder of all the recent changes in Azure SQL Database check out What’s new? in the Azure SQL Database documentation.
Great question #2
Do you get the full referential integrity of SQL Server (i.e. primary & foreign key relationships enforced) in Fabric SQL?
Yes. The foreign key article in the T-SQL documentation hasn’t yet been updated with the right “Applies to” tag at the top (we’re continuing to update all the articles), but you can take the T-SQL example from the foreign key article and use it today in SQL database in Fabric. The referential integrity available in SQL database in Fabric as part of foreign keys not only controls the data being entered into the foreign key table, but also enforces optional controls when changes are made to the primary key table.
In a scenario where a table Product has a foreign key to a table ProductCategory, the column ProductCategoryId is controlled by the values in the ProductCategory table. The referential integrity provided by the foreign key ensures data is not orphaned in the Product table ProductCategoryId column. Actions (ON DELETE and ON UPDATE) can be specified to implement automatic data changes based on changes to the primary key in the ProductCategory table.
Check out the primary and foreign key article for more details on referential integrity, a core concept in strong relational design.
Great question #3
Can we restore a SQL Server backup file using SSMS or scripting for the bac file stored in OneLake?
To bring an existing database into SQL database in Fabric today you would leverage the SqlPackage CLI. With SqlPackage you can selectively deploy the object definitions, some data, or all the data from a database through bacpac and dacpac files.
For an “all at once” approach, export an existing database from SQL Server or Azure SQL to a bacpac. A bacpac is a self-contained file with the definition and data from a database, where the definition has been checked to be compatible with Azure SQL Database. This bacpac is then imported to SQL database in Fabric. A walkthrough of using SqlPackage to export/import a bacpac is available in the documentation.
Hint: if you want to bring a database with only the data from some tables, you can use the SqlPackage extract command with the /p:TableData property set multiple times to specify the tables that you want to capture the data from.
Bonus great question
Is SQL database already integrated with deployment pipelines and git integration?
Yes. Since day 1 of the public preview, SQL database in Fabric comes with the git integration and deployment pipelines enabled. We’re building on top of the common SQL projects format so you can share knowledge and tools between SQL database in Fabric, Azure SQL, and SQL Server. We previously discussed the source control integration for SQL database in Fabric in an earlier blog post.
Catch the full Ask the Experts
There were so many questions asked during the hour, but I only picked a handful as my favorite great questions. If you’d like to catch all the good questions, the recording is available now on YouTube.
If you haven’t already started exploring SQL database in Fabric:
- Begin by signing up for a 60-day Fabric free trial.
- Enable SQL database in your tenant settings.
- Learn more via MS Learn:
- Visit the Fabric community forums to join discussions and share feedback.
- Contribute and vote for product improvement ideas.