SQL database topics

How Are You Managing SQL Database Schema Changes and Deployments in Microsoft Fabric?

codeautomation — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 09:58:35 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm exploring how development teams manage database schema changes and production deployments when working with SQL databases in Microsoft Fabric.

As applications evolve, developers frequently need to add columns, modify tables, update stored procedures, and introduce new database objects.

The challenge is deploying these changes safely without losing existing data, breaking application queries, or creating inconsistencies between development and production environments.

Microsoft Fabric supports Git integration, deployment pipelines, and SQL database projects, but I'm interested in how teams are implementing these capabilities in real development workflows.

A few questions for the community:

Source Control: Are you managing Fabric SQL database schemas using Git integration, SQL database projects, or manually maintained SQL scripts?
Deployment Strategy: How do you promote schema changes between development, testing, and production environments while preserving existing data?
Breaking Changes: What approach do you use when renaming columns, changing data types, or removing database objects that existing applications depend on?
Automated Testing: Are you validating database changes through CI/CD pipelines, schema comparisons, or automated integration tests before deployment?
Rollback and Recovery: How do you handle unsuccessful deployments, especially when changes involve both database structure and existing records?
Team Collaboration: How do multiple developers manage parallel schema changes without introducing conflicts or unexpected deployment behavior?

I'm particularly interested in practical experiences using Visual Studio Code, SQL database projects, Git integration, and Fabric deployment pipelines.

For production environments, would you recommend database project-based deployments with automated validation, or smaller incremental SQL migrations managed through CI/CD?

I'd appreciate any examples, best practices, or lessons learned from teams managing Fabric SQL databases in real applications.

Thanks!

SQL database in Fabric: how do you manage schema changes across dev, test and prod?

jubinsoni — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 19:03:55 GMT

Hi everyone,

We are evaluating SQL database in Fabric for a small transactional workload and need a repeatable way to promote schema changes between environments. Today our idea is a SQL project built in CI and deployed as a dacpac, with idempotent scripts for data fixes such as:

IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM sys.columns WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Orders') AND name = N'Channel' ) ALTER TABLE dbo.Orders ADD Channel varchar(20) NULL;

What I would like to know

Do you use SQL projects with deployment pipelines, Git integration in the workspace, or a mix of both?
How do you handle environment-specific settings and permissions so a deploy does not overwrite them?
Any problems with large table alterations or rollback plans on this service?

Real examples of the promotion flow would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

How Can SQL Databases Support Reliable Automated Business Workflows?

codeautomation — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 20:04:39 GMT

SQL databases remain central to many business applications, storing everything from customer records and transactions to operational data. However, as organizations grow, manually transferring data between systems and coordinating repetitive database operations can become increasingly difficult.

Connecting SQL databases with automated business workflows can help reduce manual effort, improve data consistency, and accelerate operational processes.

Some important considerations include:

Using efficient queries and indexing to maintain database performance.
Implementing change tracking or event-driven mechanisms to detect relevant data updates.
Connecting database operations with APIs and downstream business applications.
Handling transaction failures, retries, and duplicate processing reliably.
Applying proper access controls and monitoring to protect business data.

I'm interested in learning how other teams approach this.

What strategies are you using to connect SQL databases with automated workflows? Have you encountered challenges with synchronization, performance, or maintaining data consistency across multiple systems?

For organizations looking to extend these capabilities beyond database operations, AI business automation solutions can also help connect business applications and automate repetitive operational processes.

Would love to hear about your practical experiences and recommendations.

SQL database in Fabric: indexing and query tuning for a mixed OLTP and reporting workload?

jubinsoni — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 03:10:15 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am looking at SQL database in Fabric for an application that does frequent small writes and also feeds reports through the automatically mirrored copy in OneLake. I would like to hear how others approach performance tuning for this kind of mixed workload.

The baseline I would start from is looking at the most expensive queries and missing-index suggestions with the standard DMVs:

SELECT TOP 10 qs.total_worker_time / qs.execution_count AS avg_cpu, qs.execution_count, SUBSTRING(st.text, 1, 200) AS query_text FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS qs CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(qs.sql_handle) AS st ORDER BY avg_cpu DESC;

Questions:

Which tuning tools do you rely on in this service (Query Store, DMVs, automatic tuning, the portal performance views), and which behave differently from Azure SQL Database?
Do reporting queries against the OneLake copy reduce load on the transactional side in practice, and how do you handle the replication delay in reports?
Any guidance on indexing for write-heavy tables so that mirroring does not become the bottleneck?

Thanks in advance.

SQL database in Fabric as an app backend: how do you handle shared capacity and throttling?

jubinsoni — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:40:12 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm evaluating SQL database in Fabric as the backend for a small internal app (a few hundred users, mostly short OLTP reads and writes), with the mirrored data in OneLake used for reporting.

The part I'm trying to understand better is how it behaves on a shared capacity. Since the database consumes the same capacity units as Spark, pipelines and semantic model refreshes, I'm wondering:

Throttling: if a heavy notebook or refresh pushes the capacity into throttling, does the app's database traffic get delayed or rejected too? Has anyone seen app-facing latency spikes because of other workloads?
Isolation: do people put the database on its own (small) capacity to protect the app, or is that overkill?
Sizing: what's a good way to estimate the CU cost of the database before go-live? Is the Capacity Metrics app the only option, or are there useful DMVs?
Auto-pause: for an app with idle periods overnight, how long is the resume delay on the first connection, and does the app need retry logic for it?

For the retry part, I was planning something like a standard transient-error retry on the client side:

Connection string: ConnectRetryCount=3; ConnectRetryInterval=10; Connection Timeout=60; App side: retry on transient SQL errors with exponential backoff (max ~3 attempts)

Is that enough, or are there other settings you'd recommend?

Thanks for any insights!

SQL Database capacity consumption too high !

Azsxdcfvgb — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:53:47 GMT

I'm copying a few massive tables from an On-prem SQL Server Database into a Fabric SQL Database. Tables are around 1.6TB, 1.3TB and 1.1TB, and there are more smaller tables as well.
The Database has reached maximum allocated size and I've stopped copying two days ago. One of the batches abruplty stopped during load.
It is still consuming a LOT of CUs !
I'm aware of how even after the copy data activity has stopped there's prolonged capacity consumption (apparently for indexing, statistics etc) but this is a slightly higher percentage of base capacity than what I've seen before and its been going on for much longer than before.

Could this be because of the size of the item (~3416 GB) ?

Also, is there any way to suppress this without having to wait until it dies out, whenever that it. I cannot apply the per-database max vCore setting (as proposed in this solution) because of the size.

SQL database in Fabric: how fresh is the OneLake replica, and what doesn't get mirrored?

jubinsoni — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:10:46 GMT

Hi all,

I'm considering SQL database in Fabric as the operational (OLTP) backend for an internal app, and using its automatic replication to OneLake for analytics instead of building a separate ingestion pipeline.

My understanding is that data written to the SQL database is automatically replicated to OneLake in Delta format and can be queried through the SQL analytics endpoint, Spark, or Power BI. Before relying on that, I'd like to understand the details.

Questions:

Freshness: what replication latency do people see in practice between a committed transaction and the data appearing in OneLake? Does it change under heavy write load?
Coverage: which tables, columns or data types are not replicated (for example, certain data types, tables without primary keys, or computed columns)? Is there a way to check replication status for each table?
Schema changes: what happens to the OneLake copy when I add, drop or alter a column, or rename a table? Does replication continue, or does the table need to be reseeded?
Consistency: if a single transaction updates several tables, do they show up in OneLake together, or can analytics queries briefly see a partial state?
Capacity cost: does replication use capacity units separately from the database workload, and is there a way to monitor it?
Design: for near-real-time reporting, would you query the replica directly, or still build curated tables in a Warehouse or Lakehouse on top of it?

Thanks!

Query of voucher DP-900

arosas — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:30:13 GMT

Hi staff of Microsoft.

Query: How I can have a voucher of 50% for the exam certification of DP-900 ?

This is the very important for me job.

Best regards from Panama Republic.

How can I convert JSON data to SQL format without writing a custom script?

mathew0406 — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 05:39:40 GMT

I have a large JSON dataset that I need to migrate into a SQL database for further analysis and reporting. The JSON contains nested objects and multiple records, so manually creating SQL statements is becoming time-consuming. I’m looking for a reliable way to convert JSON to SQL while keeping the data organized and minimizing manual work. I came across the SysTools JSON Converter, which supports JSON to SQL conversion and seems useful for handling such requirements.

A few things I’m particularly looking for:

Support for large JSON files and bulk conversion
Ability to handle nested JSON data
Preserve the available data hierarchy and structure
Export JSON directly into SQL format
An easy-to-use interface without requiring extensive coding
Offline processing for better control over sensitive data

Has anyone used SysTools JSON Converter Tool for JSON-to-SQL conversion? I’d appreciate feedback on its performance and output quality.

SQL databases in Fabric run as interactive rather than background workloads

Nagesh_Rao — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 18:04:23 GMT

One major challenge I've run into with SQL databases in Fabric is that they run as interactive rather than background workloads. Because the database has to stay online, it continuously consumes CUs, which puts real pressure on shared capacity where pipelines, notebooks, and Power BI are competing for the same resources.

Today the only isolation option is moving the SQL database into its own workspace on a dedicated capacity, which adds management overhead and cross-workspace friction. It would be great to see item-level capacity assignment or workload isolation for SQL databases within a capacity — or a background/idle classification so an always-on database isn't billed like an active interactive workload.

Is anything like this on the roadmap?

SQL help

powerbidev123 — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:32:02 GMT

Return the longest streak of consecutive login days for each user.

Need SQl help

powerbidev123 — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:31:27 GMT

Hi All

I need help with a SQL problem as desc below

Find the second highest salary from an Employee table without using LIMIT, TOP, or window functions.

[SQL database in Fabric] Saved queries not listed in "My queries" in the query editor (auto-save suc

Yas50 — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 07:48:11 GMT

Product: SQL database in Fabric (NOT Azure SQL Database, NOT Fabric Warehouse)

In the query editor of a SQL database in Fabric item, saved queries do
not appear under Explorer > Queries > My queries.

The queries ARE being saved. Evidence:
- New query names keep incrementing (currently at "SQL query 10")
- Saving with an existing query name returns a duplicate name error

So this is a display/listing issue, not a save failure.

Already ruled out:
- Cache / cookies / extensions: reproduced in an InPrivate window
- Account or profile mismatch: same work account throughout,
never switched browser profiles
- Environment-wide problem: in the SAME workspace, the SQL analytics
endpoint of a lakehouse lists its saved queries under "My queries"
correctly. Only the SQL database in Fabric item is affected.

Docs for the SQL database in Fabric query editor state that queries are
automatically saved every few seconds, with a "saving" indicator in the
query tab. The save behavior matches the docs - only the listing is missing.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/database/sql/query-editor

Environment:
- Item type: SQL database in Fabric
- Region: Southeast Asia
- Capacity: F8

I checked Known Issues (Databases category) and found no matching entry.

Has anyone else seen this with SQL database in Fabric?

Anyone connected to Trimble's Spectrum Viewpoint SQL database in Fabric?

mcorrell001 — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:19:47 GMT

I can connect easily with Sql Server Management Studio but not Fabric. Not sure why?

SQL Strategy

binitafulpagare — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 04:07:11 GMT

Hi everyone,

With the growing number of database technologies available, I'm curious how organizations decide which database should support different workloads.

When working with Microsoft Fabric, how do you decide whether data should remain in an operational database or be moved into Fabric for analytics?

I'd appreciate hearing the decision-making process you've found most effective.

'EDIT_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.

MustafaSH — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:51:19 GMT

I'm using SQL Sever 2025 Dev Edition and study DP-800 from Microsoft learn

When try this code

SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('Apple', 'Apel');

I get this error

Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 18
'EDIT_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name

Training course recommendation on learning Natural Language to SQL within SQL Server?

D_PBI — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 13:34:27 GMT

Hi (I hope this is a suitable forum),
We currently get our insights through Power BI (PBI) accessing data within SQL Server. Producing thsese reports/insights is labour intensive. With the introduction of AI, I've been tasked to find our if we are able to write questions (in Natural Language) of our data (held within SQL Server) and have the answers returned. If this is possible then it may negate the need for PBI reports to be generated to achieve the same insights.
I have no understanding of AI at present. My gut is telling me the data model will have to be specific and very descriptive, and then we'd have to rely on customers (end-users) asking their questions in a regimented way - all challenges.
I've been reading various online articles on the subject but each article, it seems, recommends different software and I'm gaining no momentum. Therefore, I am here to ask if you can advise on any training courses that would take me from a complete novice to someone who can, either, get the aim working or is equipped to advise it wouldn't work with our setup.
We are a Microsoft (MS) house (SQL Server, Dynamics, etc...) and all in Azure. Any training material should follow using MS technologies otherwise the I.T. dept may put a blocker on it.
Your suggestions will be most welcome. Thanks.

Using Date Range in SQL Statement to ODBC Data Source

mhender — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:03:02 GMT

What SQL statement should I use to return data from table F4111 in a date range of current date to previous year? Creation date column ILCRDJ in table F4111 holds a date entry that is a text string (ie: "06/14/26"). I am using an ODBC server and trying to use SQL statement to return by parameter. Here is an attempt and the error message received.

SELECT *
FROM F4111
WHERE ILCRDJ >= {fn CURDATE()-365}

"ODBC: ERROR [HY000] [IBM][System i Access ODBC Driver][DB2 for i5/OS]SQL0182 - A date, time, or timestamp expression not valid."

Power Apps integration with Fabric

BharathKumarS — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:53:56 GMT

Hi All,

Should one map the backend of Power Apps to a Fabric SQL database?

The Power apps is heavily used by more than 50 users with ~100-150 data entries per hour.

And the fabric capacity is a shared one meaning there are other data ingestions job and power bi reports being utilized via the same capacity.

So is it ideal to have a heavy transactional system relying on a shared Fabric capacity?

Also based on the MSFT doc as well, it is not recommened.

What is Fabric Apps (Preview)? - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Fabric SQL DB critical CI/CD sync issue

IanBasilioMMM — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 05:17:34 GMT

I have a SQL DB inside a fabric workspace and I am setting it up for CI/CD using GitHub. But any sync made via the repository fail when syncing to the workspace.

Here are the steps I do:

The SQL DB was created within the fabric workspace and the SQL DB works fine on fabric service
SQL DB is commited to my repo via the worksapce source control pane
I make a simple change to a SQL query via git in the repository
I update the workspace items based on the repository changes
I get this error: SQL Project build failed. The model version 'SqlDbFabric' is not supported. The model version 'SqlDbFabric' is not supported.

And even if I don't make any changes to the repo I get the error:

The SQL DB was created within the fabric workspace and the SQL DB works fine on fabric service
SQL DB is commited to my repo via the worksapce source control pane
I create a new blank workspace in fabric
I sync the workspace with the same branch from my repo that I commited in step 2, basically getting the items from the repo to the workspace
I get this error: SQL Project build failed. The model version 'SqlDbFabric' is not supported. The model version 'SqlDbFabric' is not supported.

Is fabric not cabaple of rebuilding the SQL DB from its own created files? Because the documentation says otherwise.

Here is the .sqlproj code autogenerated by fabric:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project DefaultTargets="Build"> <Sdk Name="Microsoft.Build.Sql" Version="2.1.0" /> <PropertyGroup> <Name>ACTIVITIES_SQL_DB</Name> <ProjectGuid>{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}</ProjectGuid> <DSP>Microsoft.Data.Tools.Schema.Sql.SqlDbFabricDatabaseSchemaProvider</DSP> <ModelCollation>1033, CI</ModelCollation> </PropertyGroup> <ItemGroup> <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.SqlServer.Dacpacs.DbFabric"> <SuppressMissingDependenciesErrors>False</SuppressMissingDependenciesErrors> <DatabaseVariableLiteralValue>master</DatabaseVariableLiteralValue> <Version>170.0.0</Version> </PackageReference> </ItemGroup> <Target Name="BeforeBuild"> <Delete Files="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)\project.assets.json" /> </Target> </Project>