SSMS 17.6 is now available: Managed Instance and many bug fixes

Download SSMS 17.6 and review the Release Notes to get started.

SSMS 17.6 provides support for almost all feature areas on SQL Server 2008 through the latest SQL Server 2017, which is now generally available.

In addition to enhancements and bug fixes, SSMS 17.6 comes with several exciting new features:

Added more support for Azure SQL Database Managed Instance.

Fixed a key performance issue in SMO where scripting tables on SQL Server 2016 took 30 seconds, but now take less than one second.

Object Explorer: Added settings to allow users not to force brackets around names when dragging and dropping from Object Explorer to Query Window.

Data Classification: Improvements and bug fixes.

SSMS 17.6 also includes key bug fixes to Always On, SMO, and Database mail, which can be found in the Release Notes.

Azure SQL Database Managed Instance

Azure SQL Database Managed Instance (preview) is a new flavor of Azure SQL Database, providing near 100 percent compatibility with SQL Server on-premises, a native virtual network (VNet) implementation that addresses common security concerns, and a business model favorable for on-premises SQL Server customers.

Source from Managed Instance Documentation

In SSMS, there is now support for common management scenarios such as:

Create and alter databases

Backup and restore databases

Importing, exporting, extracting and publishing Data-tier Applications

Viewing and altering Server properties

Full Object Explorer support

Scripting database objects

Support for SQL Agent jobs

Support for Linked Servers

To learn more about Managed Instance, check this Azure blog post.

Bug fixes

In SSMS 17.6, there were many bug fixes across Data Classification, Always On, Setup, SMO, Object Explorer, and Database mail.

To highlight a few of these:

SMO

Fixed performance issue where scripting tables on SQL2016 and above could take up to 30 seconds (now, it’s down to less than one second)

Data Classification:

Fixed an issue in Data Classification which was causing newly added classification to be displayed with stale “information type” and “sensitivity label”.

Fixed an issue where Data Classification was not working when targeting a server set to a case-sensitive collation.

Always On

Fixed an issue in AG Show Dashboard where clicking on “Collect Latency Data” could result in an error when the server was set to a case-sensitive collation.

Fixed an issue where SSMS was incorrectly reporting an AG as Distributed when the Cluster service shuts down.

Fixed an issue when creating AG using create Availability Group dialog the ReadOnlyRoutingUrl is required.

To learn more about other bug fixes covered in this release, check the Release Notes.

Call to Action

Try it out and let us know what you think! You can message us on our twitter @SQLDataTools or reach out to Ken Van Hyning’s twitter @SQLToolsGuy.