What's new in SQL Server Management Studio 18.7?

Release 18.7 is the third major release of SSMS in 2020 and extends its commitment to providing quality tools for database administration. The main changes include:

Install with Azure Data Studio

SQL Server Management Studio is a cross-platform tool for many people working with Microsoft data solutions. First released in 2018, Azure Data Studio is an open-source and cross-platform desktop environment for data professionals, using the Azure Data family of cloud-based and at-home solutions. place.

Architecturally, SQL Server Management Studio has long been incorporated with additional tools, including Profiler, Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DTA) and Database Mail. As Azure Data Studio continues to evolve, the Microsoft data engine experience on Windows has become a hybrid of SSMS and Azure Data Studio. Starting with version 18.7 of SQL Server Management Studio, Azure Data Studio is automatically installed together with SSMS.

SQL Server Management Studio users will be able to benefit from innovations in Azure Data Studio, whether their environment is cloud, on-premises, or hybrid.

Extended Events

Extended Events is a lightweight performance monitoring system that allows users to collect the data they need to monitor and troubleshoot in SQL Server. One of the ways to configure the Extended Events session is through the New Session Wizard in SQL Server Management Studio.

One of the events that can be monitored by Extended Events is server waiting. For each new SQL engine release, additional waiting types are introduced. This sometimes changes wait_type_id for a named wait type. The latest version of SQL Server Management Studio adds the ability to script Extended Events, in which wait types are filtered by name instead of wait_type_id.

Find this new option in the New Session dialog box under Extended Events in Object Explorer.

Policy-based management

Policy-Based Management is a feature to manage one or more instances of SQL Server through policies. These policies are user-created conditions that apply to database objects. For example, you might want to make sure that the database option AUTO_SHRINK is turned off on selected databases, so you create a condition to check the AUTO_SHRINK option . Policies are evaluated on demand, change or schedule, providing flexibility in application from manual to automatic.

Policy-based management is accessed in SQL Server Management Studio in Management (Policy Management). Getting started with policy-based management can be accelerated by importing existing policy templates for SQL Server. In September, these policies were added to the open source collection of SQL Server templates to facilitate their use and improvement.

These sample policies can be accessed on the GitHub repository and your contributions to these best practices are welcome.

Regular updates to SQL Server Management Studio will continue to be released on a quarterly basis, and user feedback is an integral part of it.

Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 18.7 here

Marvin Fry

Update 09 November 2020