Quickstart: Create Azure SQL Managed
Instance
06/19/2025
Applies to: Azure SQL Managed Instance
This quickstart teaches you to create a deployment of Azure SQL Managed Instance by using the
Azure portal, PowerShell, and the Azure CLI.
７ Note
Try Azure SQL Managed Instance free of charge and get 720 vCore hours on a General
Purpose SQL Managed Instance with up to 100 databases per instance for the first 12
months.
Prerequisites
To create a SQL managed instance, you need the following prerequisites:
An Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account
In the general case, your user needs to have the role SQL Managed Instance Contributor
assigned at subscription scope.
If provisioning in a subnet that is already delegated to Azure SQL Managed Instance, your
user only needs the Microsoft.Sql/managedInstances/write permission assigned at
subscription scope.
The latest version of the Az.SQL PowerShell module or the latest version of the Azure CLI.
For limitations, see Supported regions and Supported subscription types.
Create Azure SQL Managed Instance
You can create a deployment of Azure SQL Managed Instance by using the Azure portal,
PowerShell, and the Azure CLI.
Consider the following:
You can cancel the provisioning process through Azure portal, or via PowerShell or the Azure
CLI or other tooling using the REST API.
Instance deployment delayed if it's impacted by other operations in the same subnet, such
as a long-running restore or scaling an instance.
Read permissions for the resource group are required to see the SQL managed instance in
your resource group.
） Important
For duration of the create operation, see management operation durations.
Portal
Sign in to the Azure portal
To create your instance in the Azure portal, you'll first need to sign into the Azure portal, and
then fill out the information on the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page.
To create your instance, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to the Azure portal .
2. Select Azure SQL on the left menu of the Azure portal. If Azure SQL isn't in the list,
select All services, and then enter Azure SQL in the search box.
3. Select + Create to open the Select SQL deployment option page. You can view
additional information about Azure SQL Managed Instance by selecting Show details
on the SQL managed instances tile.
4. Choose Singe instance from the dropdown and then select Create to open the Create
Azure SQL Managed Instance page.
Basics tab
Fill out mandatory information required on the Basics tab, which is the minimum requirement
to provision a SQL Managed Instance.
The following table provides details for the required information on the Basics tab:
ﾉ Expand table
Setting Suggested value Description
Subscription Your subscription. A subscription that gives you permission to
create new resources.
Resource group A new or existing resource For valid resource group names, see Naming
group. rules and restrictions.
Managed Instance Any valid name. For valid names, see Naming rules and
name restrictions.
Region The region in which you want to For information about regions, see Azure
create the SQL managed regions .
instance.
Belongs to an Select Yes if you want this
instance pool? instance to be created inside an
instance pool.
Authentication Use SQL authentication For this quickstart, use SQL authentication.
method But for improved security, use Microsoft Entra
authentication.
Setting Suggested value Description
Managed instance Any valid username. For valid names, see Naming rules and
admin login restrictions. Don't use serveradmin because
that's a reserved server-level role.
Password Any valid password. The password must be at least 16 characters
long and meet the defined complexity
requirements.
Under Managed Instance details, select Configure Managed Instance in the Compute +
storage section to open the Compute + storage page.
The following table provides recommendations for the compute and storage for your sample
SQL Managed Instance:
ﾉ Expand table
Setting Suggested Description
value
Service Tier General The General Purpose tier is suitable for most production
Purpose workloads, and is the default option. The improved Next-gen
General Purpose service tier is also a great choice for most
workloads. For more information, review resource limits.
Setting Suggested Description
value
Hardware Standard-series Standard-series (Gen5) is the default hardware generation, which
generation (Gen5) defines compute and memory limits. Standard-series (Gen5) is
the default.
vCores Designate a vCores represent the exact amount of compute resources that are
value. always provisioned for your workload. Eight vCores is the default.
Storage in GB Designate a Storage size in GB, select based on expected data size.
value.
SQL Server Select Either pay as you go, use an existing SQL license with the Azure
License applicable Hybrid Benefit, or enable the Hybrid failover rights
licensing model.
Backup storage Geo-redundant Storage redundancy inside Azure for backup storage. Geo-
redundancy backup storage. redundant backup storage is default and recommended, though
Geo-zone, Zone and Local redundancy allow for greater cost
flexibility and single region data residency.
Once you've designated your Compute + Storage configuration, use Apply to save your
settings, and navigate back to the Create Azure SQL Managed Instance page. Select Next to
move to the Networking tab
Networking tab
Fill out optional information on the Networking tab. If you omit this information, the portal
applies default settings.
The following table provides details for information on the Networking tab:
ﾉ Expand table
Setting Suggested value Description
Virtual network / Create new, or use If a network or subnet is unavailable, it must be modified
subnet an existing virtual to satisfy the network requirements before you select it
network as a target for the new SQL managed instance.
Connection type Choose a suitable For more information, see connection types.
connection type.
Setting Suggested value Description
Public endpoint Select Disable. For a SQL managed instance to be accessible through
the public data endpoint, you need to enable this option.
Allow access from (if Select No Access The portal configures the security group with a public
Public endpoint is endpoint.
enabled)
Based on your scenario, select one of the following
options:
Azure services: We recommend this option when
you're connecting from Power BI or another
multitenant service.
Internet: Use for test purposes when you want to
quickly spin up a SQL managed instance. Not
recommended for production environments.
No access: This option creates a Deny security
rule. Modify this rule to make a SQL managed
instance accessible through a public endpoint.
For more information on public endpoint security, see
Using Azure SQL Managed Instance securely with a
public endpoint.
Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a SQL managed instance. Or,
configure security settings by selecting Next: Security settings.
Security tab
For this quickstart, leave the settings on the Security tab at their default values.
Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a SQL managed instance. Or,
configure more custom settings by selecting Next: Additional settings.
Additional settings
Fill out optional information on the Additional settings tab. If you omit this information, the
portal applies default settings.
The following table provides details for information on the Additional settings tab:
ﾉ Expand table
Setting Suggested value Description
Collation Choose the collation that you want to use for your SQL For information about
managed instance. If you migrate databases from SQL collations, see Set or
Server, check the source collation by using SELECT change the server
SERVERPROPERTY(N'Collation') and use that value. collation.
Time zone Select the time zone that SQL managed instance For more information, see
observes. Time zones.
Geo- Select No. Only enable this option if
Replication you plan to use the SQL
managed instance as a
failover group secondary.
Maintenance Choose a suitable maintenance window. Designate a schedule for
window when your instance is
maintained by the
service.
Select Review + create to review your choices before you create a SQL managed instance. Or,
configure Azure Tags by selecting Next: Tags (recommended).
Tags
Add tags to resources in your Azure Resource Manager template (ARM template). Tags help
you logically organize your resources. The tag values show up in cost reports and allow for
other management activities by tag. Consider at least tagging your new SQL managed
instance with the Owner tag to identify who created, and the Environment tag to identify
whether this system is Production, Development, etc. For more information, see Develop your
naming and tagging strategy for Azure resources.
Select Review + create to proceed.
Review + create
On the Review + create tab, review your choices, and then select Create to deploy your SQL
managed instance.
Monitor deployment progress
1. Select the Notifications icon to view the status of the deployment.
2. Select Deployment in progress in the notification to open the SQL Managed Instance
window and further monitor the deployment progress.
Once deployment completes, navigate to your resource group to view your SQL managed
instance:
Tip
If you closed your web browser or moved away from the deployment progress screen,
you can monitor the provisioning operation via the Overview page for your SQL
managed instance in the Azure portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI.
Review network settings
Select the Route table resource in your resource group to review the default user-defined route
table object and entries to route traffic from, and within, the SQL Managed Instance virtual
network. To change or add routes, open the Routes in the Route table settings.
Select the Network security group object to review the inbound and outbound security rules. To
change or add rules, open the Inbound Security Rules and Outbound security rules in the
Network security group settings.
） Important
If you enabled public endpoint for SQL Managed Instance, open ports to allow network
traffic connections to SQL Managed Instance from the public internet.
Create database
You can create a new database by using the Azure portal, PowerShell, or the Azure CLI.
Portal
To create a new database for your instance in the Azure portal, follow these steps:
1. Go to your SQL managed instance in the Azure portal.
2. Select + New database on the Overview page for your SQL managed instance to open
the Create Azure SQL Managed Database page.
3. Provide a name for the database on the Basics tab.
4. On the Data source tab, select None for an empty database, or restore a database from
backup.
5. Configure the remaining settings on the remaining tabs, and then select Review +
create to validate your choices.
6. Use Create to deploy your database.
Retrieve connection details to SQL Managed
Instance
To connect to SQL Managed Instance, follow these steps to retrieve the host name and fully
qualified domain name (FQDN):
1. Return to the resource group and select the SQL managed instance object that was created.
2. On the Overview tab, locate the Host property. Copy the host name to your clipboard for
the SQL managed instance for use in the next quickstart by clicking the Copy to clipboard
button.
The value copied represents a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that can be used to
connect to SQL Managed Instance. It's similar to the following address example:
your_host_name.a1b2c3d4e5f6.database.windows.net.
Related content
Review the following related content:
Configure an Azure virtual machine connection
Migration overview: SQL Server to SQL Managed Instance
Configure a point-to-site connection
Monitor Azure SQL Managed Instance using database watcher
To restore an existing SQL Server database from on-premises to SQL Managed Instance:
Use the Azure Database Migration Service to restore from a database backup file.
Use the T-SQL RESTORE command to restore from a database backup file.
Next steps
Connect your applications to SQL Managed Instance.
