Azure Synapse Analytics Release Notes

Each month the Azure Synapse Analytics team works hard to get new features, updates, and improvements out the door. Here you will find a running list of updates released each month and links to the corresponding blog posts from the product team. You can always find the full updates from the product team and other great Synapse content over on the Azure Synapse Blog.

May 2022

Read about the May 2022 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• General
  • [See Details] Get connected with the Azure Synapse Influencer program
• SQL
  • [See Details] Data Warehouse Migration guide for Dedicated SQL Pools in Azure Synapse Analytics
  • [See Details] Specify character column lengths… Not anymore!
• Apache Spark for Synapse
  • [See Details] Azure Synapse Dedicated SQL Pool Connector for Apache Spark Now Available in Python
  • [See Details] Manage Azure Synapse Apache Spark configuration
• Synapse Data Explorer
  • [See Details] Synapse Data Explorer live query in Excel
  • [See Details] Use Managed Identities for External SQL Server Tables
  • [See Details] New KQL Learn module (2 out of 3) is live!
  • [See Details] Azure Synapse Data Explorer connector for Microsoft Power Automate, Logic Apps, and Power Apps [Gen…
  • [See Details] Dynamic events routing from event hub to multiple databases 
  • [See Details] Configure a database using a KQL inline script as part of JSON ARM deployment template
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Export pipeline monitoring as a CSV
  • [See Details] Incremental data loading made easy for Synapse and Azure Database for PostgreSQL and MySQL
  • [See Details] User-Defined Functions for Mapping Data Flows [Public Preview]
  • [See Details] Assert Error Handling
  • [See Details] Mapping data flows projection editing
• Synapse Link
  • [See Details] Azure Synapse Link for SQL [Public Preview]

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April 2022

Read about the April 2022 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• SQL
  • [See Details] Cross-subscription restore for Azure Synapse SQL [Generally Available]
  • [See Details] Recover SQL pool from dropped server or workspace
• Synapse Database Templates & Database Designer
  • [See Details] Revamped exploration experience
  • [See Details] Clone lake database
  • [See Details] Use wildcards to specify custom folder hierarchies
• Apache Spark for Synapse
  • [See Details] Apache Spark 3.2 [Public Preview]
  • [See Details] Parameterization for Spark job definition
  • [See Details] Notebook snapshot
• Security
  • [See Details] Synapse Monitoring Operator RBAC role [Generally Available]
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Dataverse connector added to Synapse Data Flows
  • [See Details] Synapse Pipelines Web activity response timeout improvement
• Developer Experience
  • [See Details] Reference unpublished notebooks

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March 2022

Read about the March 2022 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• Developer Experience
  • [See Details] Synapse notebooks: Code cells with exception to show standard output
  • [See Details] Synapse notebooks: Partial output is available for running notebook code cells
  • [See Details] Synapse notebooks: Dynamically control your Spark session configuration with pipeline parameters
  • [See Details] Synapse notebooks: Reuse and manage notebook sessions
  • [See Details] Synapse notebooks: Support for Python logging
• SQL
  • [See Details] Column Level Encryption for Azure Synapse dedicated SQL Pools [Generally Available]
  • [See Details] Better performance for CETAS and subsequent SELECTs
• Apache Spark for Synapse
  • [See Details] Synapse Spark Common Data Model (CDM) Connector [Generally Available]
  • [See Details] Spark Dedicated SQL Pool (DW) Connector: Performance Improvements
  • [See Details] Synapse Spark Dedicated SQL Pool (DW) Connector: Support for all Spark Dataframe SaveMode choices (…
  • [See Details] Accelerate Spark execution speed using the new Intelligent Cache feature [Public Preview]
• Security
  • [See Details] Azure Synapse Analytics now supports Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) only authentication
  • [See Details] API support to raise or lower Workspace Managed SQL Server Dedicated SQL Minimal TLS version
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Flowlets and CDC Connectors [Generally Available]
  • [See Details] sFTP connector for Synapse data flows
  • [See Details] Data flow improvements to Data Preview
  • [See Details] Pipeline script activity

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February 2022

Read about the February 2022 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• SQL
  • [See Details] More consistent query execution times for Serverless SQL Pools
  • [See Details] The OPENJSON function makes it easy to get array element indexes
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Upsert supported by Copy Activity
  • [See Details] Transform Dynamics Data Visually in Synapse Data Flows
  • [See Details] Connect to your SQL sources in data flows using Always Encrypted
  • [See Details] Capture descriptions from Asserts in Data Flows
  • [See Details] Easily define schemas for complex type fields

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January 2022

Read about the January 2022 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• Apache Spark for Synapse
  • [See Details] 4 New database templates [Public Preview]
• Machine Learning
  • [See Details] Improvements to the SynapseML library
• Security
  • [See Details] Azure Synapse Analytics security overview
  • [See Details] TLS 1.2 required for new workspaces
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Data quality validation rules using Assert transformation
  • [See Details] Native data flow connector for Dynamics
  • [See Details] IntelliSense and auto-complete added to pipeline expressions
• Synapse SQL
  • [See Details] COPY schema discovery for complex data ingestion
  • [See Details] HASHBYTES easily generates hashes in Serverless SQL

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December 2021

Read about the December 2021 updates on the Azure Synapse Blog.

• [See Details] Finding Synapse Monthly Update blogs
• Apache Spark in Synapse
  • [See Details] Additional notebook export formats
  • [See Details] Three new chart types in notebooks
  • [See Details] Reconnect notebooks to Spark sessions
• Data Integration
  • [See Details] Map Data tool [Public Preview], a no-code guided ETL experience
  • [See Details] Quick Reuse of Spark clusters
  • [See Details] External call transformation
  • [See Details] Flowlets [Public Preview]