Using Azure Data Studio Insiders build

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I’ve decided to talk about using Azure Data Studio Insiders build after my last post where I discussed deploying SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters.

In my last post I went through two methods I had used to deploy Big Data Clusters into Azure Kubernetes Service a lot of times. Which you can read in detail here.

For those of you who are not aware what it is, Azure Data Studio is another application that you can use to manage SQL Server. However, it differs from SQL Server Management Studio.

For instance, unlike SQL Server Management Studio it is multi-platform. Which means you can also install it on both macOS and Linux.

In addition, it has some other really useful features like Notebooks. Something I know others have discussed recently in various sessions and posts.

I do recommend you try Azure Data Studio for yourself. You can download and install it here.

Insiders build

Now, there is another version of Azure Data Studio that you can install called the Insiders build. In fact, you can run it side-by-side with the stable version of Azure Data Studio that I discussed above.

You can think of the Insiders build as a beta version of Azure Data Studio because it contains features that the team are currently working on. For example, the Deploy SQL Server wizard.

I have to admit I do like the Deploy SQL Server wizard that’s currently in the Insiders build. In fact, it’s a feature I highly recommend looking at yourself.

Because it makes it easy to deploy SQL Server everywhere, including an easy to use wizard to deploy Big Data Clusters.

In fact, you can use this wizard to deploy a Big Data Cluster to a variety of places that hosts a Kubernetes service.

For example, you can start with absolutely nothing in place and deploy to somewhere that has Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) in-place like Azure or Azure Stack. Or you can deploy to an existing minikube environment instead.

Of course, because the Insiders build is actively being developed you have to appreciate it may not be as stable as the official build. However, if you do encounter issues you can easily provide feedback on GitHub.

In addition, remember these features are subject to change in the Insiders build and could change in a newer version. Of course, they could also change once they are released to the stable version.

You can read more about the Insiders build in detail and download it here.

Final word

Hopefully my post about the Insiders build has been useful for some of you. In addition, I hope this post has also introduced others to Azure Data Studio itself.

I recommend using Azure Data Studio at the very least because this application has been heavily worked on.