[SQL Bits Release - pls squash] SQL MI content - flexible memory, faster MO, GP ZR GA (#34423)

https://dev.azure.com/msft-skilling/Content/_workitems/edit/434403/?view=edit

* [SQL Bits] SQL MI content - flexible memory, faster MO, GP ZR GA (#34419)

* [SQL Bits] SQL MI content - flexible memory, faster MO, GP ZR GA

* Acrolinx

---------

Co-authored-by: Diana Richards <[email protected]>

* words

* wording (#34426)

---------

Co-authored-by: Diana Richards <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: prmerger-automator[bot] <40007230+prmerger-automator[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Alma Jenks (BEYONDSOFT CONSULTING INC) <[email protected]>

Author: 4 people

azure-sql/database/reservations-discount-overview.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Learn how to buy Azure SQL Database and SQL Managed Instance reserv
 author: rajeshsetlem
 ms.author: rsetlem
 ms.reviewer: wiassaf, mathoma
-ms.date: 02/20/2025
+ms.date: 06/19/2025
 ms.service: azure-sql
 ms.subservice: service-overview
 ms.topic: how-to
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ Compute costs for the following zone-redundant resources include an extra charge
 - [Azure SQL Database](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#general-purpose-service-tier): Databases and elastic pools in the General Purpose service tier. 
 - [Azure SQL Managed Instance](../managed-instance/high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#business-critical-service-tier-1): Instances in the Business Critical service tier. 
 
+> [!NOTE]
+> June 2025 introduces a discount for the zone redundancy add-on for Azure SQL Managed Instance. 
+
+
 Reservations can cover compute costs for both standard compute and the zone-redundancy add-on, but they need to be purchased as two separate reservation types:
 
 - **vCore** for standard compute

azure-sql/includes/sql-managed-instance/azure-sql-managed-instance-next-gen-general-purpose-upgrade.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 author: MashaMSFT
 ms.author: mathoma
 ms.reviewer: randolphwest
-ms.date: 03/23/2024
+ms.date: 06/19/2025
 ms.service: azure-sql-managed-instance
 ms.topic: include
 ---
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ Since the Next-gen General Purpose service tier is an upgrade to the existing Ge
 
 The Next-gen General Purpose service tier is an upgrade to the existing General Purpose service tier that uses an upgraded remote storage layer to store instance data and log files on managed disks instead of page blobs. This means the Next-gen General Purpose service tier upgrade offers faster storage latency, IOPS, and throughput than the existing General Purpose service tier, with increased limits to storage, the number of vCores, and the max number of databases. Additionally, since the performance quotas are shared by the whole instance, you no longer have to resize individual files to improve their performance. The baseline cost of the Next-gen General Purpose service tier is the same as the General Purpose service tier, but you can use sliders to increase your IO performance, which is then billed separately. 
 
+The Next-gen General Purpose service tier supports [flexible memory (preview)](../../managed-instance/resource-limits.md#flexible-memory-preview), which allows you to choose the amount of memory you want to allocate to your instance. This is a significant improvement over the General Purpose service tier, which has a fixed memory allocation based on the number of selected vCores. Flexible memory is currently available to locally redundant instances on premium-series hardware. 
+
 The Next-gen General Purpose service tier helps reduce cost by offering free IOPS at three IOPS for every GB of reserved storage. The price of the storage includes the minimum IOPS. If you go above the minimum, you're charged as follows: 1 IOPS = storage price (by region) divided by three. 
 
 For example: 

azure-sql/managed-instance/automated-backups-overview.md

@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ To ensure that your backups stay within the same region where your database is d
 You can configure backup storage redundancy when you create your instance, and you can update it at a later time at the instance level. The changes that you make to an existing instance apply to future backups only. After you update the backup storage redundancy of an existing instance, it might take up to 24 hours for the changes to be applied. Changes made to backup storage redundancy apply to short-term backups only. Long-term retention policies inherit the redundancy option of short-term backups when the policy is created. The redundancy option persists for long-term backups even if the redundancy option for short-term backups subsequently changes.
 
 > [!NOTE]  
-> Changing backup redundancy is an [update management operation](management-operations-overview.md#management-operations-long-running-segments) that initiates a failover.
+> Changing backup redundancy is an [update management operation](management-operations-duration.md#update-operation) that initiates a failover.
 
 You can choose one of the following storage redundancies for backups:
 

azure-sql/managed-instance/create-template-quickstart.md

@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ More template samples can be found in [Azure Quickstart Templates](https://azure
 Select **Try it** from the following PowerShell code block to open Azure Cloud Shell.
 
 > [!IMPORTANT]
-> Deploying a managed instance is a long-running operation. Deployment of the first instance in the subnet typically takes much longer than deploying into a subnet with existing managed instances. For average provisioning times, see [SQL Managed Instance management operations](management-operations-overview.md#duration).
+> Deploying a managed instance is a long-running operation. Deployment of the first instance in the subnet typically takes much longer than deploying into a subnet with existing managed instances. For average provisioning times, see [SQL Managed Instance management operations](management-operations-duration.md).
 
 # [PowerShell](#tab/azure-powershell)
 

azure-sql/managed-instance/doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new-archive.md

@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ Return to [What's new in Azure SQL Managed Instance?](doc-changes-updates-releas
 |**Ledger GA** | November | Ledger in Azure SQL Managed Instance allows you to cryptographically attest to other parties, such as auditors or other business parties, that your data hasn't been tampered with. This feature is now generally available. Review [Ledger](/sql/relational-databases/security/ledger/ledger-overview) to learn more. | 
 |**Link from SQL MI to SQL Server 2022 preview** | November | Configure a link from Azure SQL Managed Instance to SQL Server 2022. This feature is now in preview. Review [Managed Instance link overview](managed-instance-link-feature-overview.md) to learn more. |
 |**Instance stop and start GA** | November | Stop and start your managed instance to save on licensing and compute costs. This feature is now generally available. Review [instance stop and start](instance-stop-start-how-to.md) to learn more.  |
-|**November 2022 feature wave GA**|  November | November 2022 brought a number of new features for Azure SQL Managed Instance, such as [fast provisioning](management-operations-overview.md#fast-provisioning), and [zone redundancy](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) as well as enhancements to the [virtual cluster](virtual-cluster-architecture.md) and [network security](connectivity-architecture-overview.md).  All the features and benefits introduced by the November 2022 feature wave are now generally available. Review [November 2022 Feature wave](november-2022-feature-wave-enroll.md) to learn more. | 
+|**November 2022 feature wave GA**|  November | November 2022 brought a number of new features for Azure SQL Managed Instance, such as fast provisioning, and [zone redundancy](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) as well as enhancements to the [virtual cluster](virtual-cluster-architecture.md) and [network security](connectivity-architecture-overview.md).  All the features and benefits introduced by the November 2022 feature wave are now generally available. Review [November 2022 Feature wave](november-2022-feature-wave-enroll.md) to learn more. | 
 | **SQL Server DR to SQL MI preview** |  November | In the event of a disaster, you can recover your SQL Server 2022 database by failing over to SQL Managed Instance, and then failing back to SQL Server 2022 online by using the Managed Instance link. This feature has moved from a limited public preview that required signing up to an open public preview available to everyone. Review [Online disaster recovery for SQL Server 2022](managed-instance-link-disaster-recovery.md) to learn more. |
 |**Zone-redundancy for Business Critical GA**| November | Deploy your Business Critical SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. This capability is now generally available. Review [Zone-redundancy](../managed-instance/high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) to learn more. |
 |**Zone-redundancy for General Purpose preview**| November | Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. This capability is now in preview. Review [Zone-redundancy](../managed-instance/high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) to learn more. |

azure-sql/managed-instance/doc-changes-updates-release-notes-whats-new.md

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: Learn about the new features and documentation improvements for Azu
 author: MashaMSFT
 ms.author: mathoma
 ms.reviewer: wiassaf, mathoma
-ms.date: 06/04/2025
+ms.date: 06/18/2025
 ms.service: azure-sql-managed-instance
 ms.subservice: service-overview
 ms.topic: whats-new
@@ -40,23 +40,25 @@ The following table lists the features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that are cu
 |[Database watcher for Azure SQL](../database-watcher-overview.md) | Database watcher is a managed monitoring solution for database services in the Azure SQL family. Database watcher collects in-depth workload monitoring data to give you a detailed view of database performance, configuration, and health. Learn more about [database watcher](https://aka.ms/dbwatcher-preview-announcement).|
 |[DATEADD number allows bigint](/sql/t-sql/functions/dateadd-transact-sql) | For `DATEADD (datepart , number , date )`, number can be expressed as a **bigint**.|
 |[Endpoint policies](./service-endpoint-policies-configure.md) | Configure which Azure Storage accounts can be accessed from a SQL Managed Instance subnet. Grants an extra layer of protection against inadvertent or malicious data exfiltration.|
+|[Flexible memory](resource-limits.md#flexible-memory-preview) | Save on cost by choosing the memory allocation for your [Next-gen General Purpose](service-tiers-next-gen-general-purpose-use.md) instance based on your workload needs.|
 |[Modernization Advisor](../virtual-machines/modernization-advisor.md) | Use the Modernization Advisor in the Azure portal to help you determine if migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance from a SQL Server VM saves you money or optimizes performance. |
 |[Next-gen General Purpose](service-tiers-next-gen-general-purpose-use.md) | An architectural upgrade of the General Purpose service tier that uses managed disks for greater resource flexibility, and improved performance while maintaining the same baseline cost as the General Purpose service tier.  |
- |[Regular expression functions](/sql/relational-databases/regular-expressions/overview) | Regular expression (REGEX) functions return text based on values in a search pattern. |
+|[Regular expression functions](/sql/relational-databases/regular-expressions/overview) | Regular expression (REGEX) functions return text based on values in a search pattern. |
 |[SDK-style SQL project](/sql/azure-data-studio/extensions/sql-database-project-extension-sdk-style-projects) | Use [Microsoft.Build.Sql](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Build.Sql) for SDK-style SQL projects in the SQL Database Projects extension in Azure Data Studio or Visual Studio Code. SDK-style SQL projects are especially advantageous for applications shipped through pipelines or built in cross-platform environments.|
 |[Service Broker](/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/sql-server-service-broker) | Support for cross-instance message exchange using Service Broker between instances of Azure SQL Managed Instance, and between SQL Server and Azure SQL Managed Instance. |
 |[Threat detection](threat-detection-configure.md) | Threat detection notifies you of security threats detected to your database. |
 |[UNISTR (Transact-SQL)](/sql/t-sql/functions/unistr-transact-sql)| Azure SQL Managed Instance now supports the `UNISTR` T-SQL syntax for Unicode string literals.|
 |[Vector data type and functions](/sql/t-sql/data-types/vector-data-type?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) | Working with vector data is now easier in Azure SQL Managed Instance with the [Always-up-to-date update policy](update-policy.md#always-up-to-date-update-policy) with the introduction of a new [vector data type](/sql/t-sql/data-types/vector-data-type?view=azuresqlmi-current&preserve-view=true) and [vector functions](/sql/t-sql/functions/vector-functions-transact-sql?view=azuresqlmi-current&preserve-view=true). For more information, see [Intelligent applications with Azure SQL Managed Instance](ai-artificial-intelligence-intelligent-applications.md#vectors). |
-|[Zone redundancy for General Purpose](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) |  Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. | 
 |[\|\| (String concatenation)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/string-concatenation-pipes-transact-sql?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) and [\|\|= (Compound assignment)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/compound-assignment-pipes-transact-sql?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) syntax support | Azure SQL Managed Instance now supports [\|\| (String concatenation)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/string-concatenation-pipes-transact-sql?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) and [\|\|= (Compound assignment)](/sql/t-sql/language-elements/compound-assignment-pipes-transact-sql?view=azuresqldb-current&preserve-view=true) Transact-SQL syntax.|
 
+
 ## General availability (GA)
 
 The following table lists features of Azure SQL Managed Instance that have been made generally available (GA) within the last 12 months:
 
 | Feature | GA Month | Details |
 | ---| --- |--- |
+|[Zone redundancy for General Purpose](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) | June 2025|  Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. | 
 |[Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP](/sql/relational-databases/system-stored-procedures/sp-invoke-external-rest-endpoint-transact-sql) | June 2025 | Use the `sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint` stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. | 
 | [TLS 1.3 support for replication](replication-transactional-overview.md#tls-13-support) | May 2025 | Configure Azure SQL Managed Instance replication agents to use TLS 1.3. |
 | [Free SQL Managed Instance](free-offer.md) | May 2025 | Try Azure SQL Managed Instance for free for the first 12 months after an instance is created.  |
@@ -81,7 +83,11 @@ Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation.
 
 | Changes | Details |
 | --- | --- |
+|**Faster management operations** | The duration of management operations have improved! To learn more, review [Management operations overview](management-operations-overview.md) and [Management operations duration](management-operations-duration.md). |
+| **Flexible memory preview** | Save on cost by choosing the memory allocation for your [Next-gen General Purpose](service-tiers-next-gen-general-purpose-use.md) instance based on your workload needs. This feature is currently in preview. Review [Flexible memory](resource-limits.md#flexible-memory-preview) to learn more. |
 |**Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP GA** | Use the `sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint` stored procedure to invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint provided as an input argument to the procedure. This feature is now generally available (GA). Review [Invoke an HTTPS REST endpoint SP](/sql/relational-databases/system-stored-procedures/sp-invoke-external-rest-endpoint-transact-sql) to learn more. | 
+|**Reservations discount for zone redundancy** | Take advantage of a reservations discount for the zone redundancy addon for instances in the Business Critical service tier. Review [Reserved instance discount for zone redundancy](../database/reservations-discount-overview.md#reservations-for-zone-redundant-resources) to learn more. |
+|**Zone redundancy for General Purpose GA**|  Deploy your General Purpose SQL Managed Instance to multiple availability zones to improve the availability of your instance in the event of a disaster. This capability is now generally available (GA). Review [Zone redundancy for General Purpose](high-availability-sla-local-zone-redundancy.md#zone-redundant-availability) to learn more. | 
 
 
 ### May 2025
@@ -105,6 +111,7 @@ Learn about significant changes to the Azure SQL Managed Instance documentation.
 | --- | --- |
 | **Vector data type and functions preview** | Working with vector data is now easier in Azure SQL Managed Instance with the [Always-up-to-date update policy](update-policy.md#always-up-to-date-update-policy) with the introduction of a new [vector data type](/sql/t-sql/data-types/vector-data-type) and [vector functions](/sql/t-sql/functions/vector-functions-transact-sql). This feature is now in preview. For more information, see [Intelligent applications with Azure SQL Managed Instance](ai-artificial-intelligence-intelligent-applications.md#vectors). |
 
+
 ### March 2025
 
 | Changes | Details |

azure-sql/managed-instance/failover-group-configure-sql-mi.md

@@ -466,9 +466,15 @@ Instances in a failover group remain separate Azure resources, and no changes ma
 This section is duplicated in /managed-instance/failover-group-sql-mi.md.. Please ensure changes are made to both documents.  
 -->
 
-You can scale the primary and secondary instance up or down to a different compute size within the same service tier or to a different service tier. When scaling up within the same service tier, first scale up the geo-secondary first, and then scale up the primary. When scaling down within the same service tier, reverse the order: scale down the primary first, and then scale down the secondary. Follow the same sequence when you scale an instance to a different service tier.
+The configuration of your primary and secondary instance should be the same. This includes the compute size, storage size, and service tier. If you need to change the configuration of your failover group, you can do so by scaling each instance to the same configuration accordingly. 
 
-This sequence is recommended to avoid problems from the geo-secondary, at a lower SKU, getting overloaded and having to reseed during an upgrade or downgrade process.
+You can scale the primary and secondary instance up or down to a different compute size within the same service tier or to a different service tier. Consider the following:
+- When scaling up within the same service tier, scale up the geo-secondary first, and then scale up the primary.
+- When scaling down within the same service tier, reverse the order: scale down the primary first, and then scale down the secondary. 
+ 
+Follow the same sequence when you scale an instance to a different service tier, or when you [change the memory allocation](resource-limits.md#flexible-memory-preview) of your [Next-gen General Purpose](service-tiers-next-gen-general-purpose-use.md) instance.
+
+This sequence is recommended to avoid problems from the lower SKU geo-secondary, getting overloaded and having to reseed during an upgrade or downgrade process.
 
 ## Permissions