Azure Synapse Link for SQL
The newly released feature ‘Synapse link for SQL’, enables near real-time analytics into Azure Synapse analytics over operational data from both Azure SQL and SQL Server 2022. It provides seamless integration between the SQL database and Azure Synapse analytics. The rich feature it provides enables users to run analytics, machine learning or BI workloads on your company data without much impact on your source databases. It does this with the help of its new technology called Change Feed.
The Synapse link for SQL basically allows connectivity between SQL Server tables and the Microsoft Azure Synapse platform. It provides automatic change feeds that capture the changes within SQL Server and load them into Azure Synapse Analytics continuously. The synapse link can be created with dedicated pools only, you cannot use a serverless/built-in pool when dealing with synapse link.
![Azure Synapse Link for SQL]()
The Synapse link for SQL, in addition to the following benefits it also provides access to the users for their operational data into synapse dedicated pools
- Low impact on your operational workload
- Using change feed extracts only the incremental changes from the source database and replicates into synapse dedicated pool with very less impact on your source data.
- Low complexity with no ETL jobs to supervise
- The changes made in the table that has been selected to be replicated, is visible in the synapse dedicated pool in near real-time without any ETL or data integration logic in between.
- Near real-time insights of your data
- The near real-time data availability of rich data in Azure SQL and SQL2022 will enable new business scenarios including BI reporting, material or supply chain forecasting using synapse link for SQL.
- Low-code(or)no-code
- The user just must choose the table to replicate, the distribution method and storage architecture to start the connection. There is no need for building up complex ETL packages or schemas.
Note: This feature is not available for Azure Managed Instances yet.
How it works?
As per Microsoft, ‘Azure Synapse link for SQL’ uses the following technologies in the background to make data movement easier.
![Azure Synapse Link for SQL]()
Change feed
This is a new feature included in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2022 to provide support to Azure Synapse Link for SQL, which has been built to support data synchronization between the source transactional system and Synapse Analytics.
ADLS Gen2 (storage)
Synapse Link for SQL takes advantage of ADLS as a landing zone for the data coming from your source systems. This acts as a buffer zone and helps in lessening the impact of the connection on your source database.
Synapse Dedicated Pool
The target for the data coming from your source systems is a dedicated SQL pool in Azure Synapse. You have the option to size them to meet the needs of both your data volume and your query workloads.
Ingesting Service
Behind the scenes a cloud-based ingestion service will be deployed to move the data from landing zone into the target dedicated SQL pool. This is fully managed service and silently works in the background to make data available for you.
Summary
This is a brief article on technical know how to create SQL Link for Synapse analytics. We will see how to step by step creation with demo in the future article.
Reference: Images and core concepts are from Azure synapse official documentation