SQL Server Management Studio 18.4 and sqlpackage v18.4 generally available

Today we’re announcing the release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 18.4. This update has full support for SQL Server 2019 capabilities as well as some bug fixes.

You can download SQL Server Management Studio 18.4 today and review SQL Server Management Studio release notes for details.

In addition, we’re also announcing sqlpackage v18.4 is now generally available. This means cross-platform support for sqlpackage is officially generally available. Download the latest release today.

In this blog, you will learn about the new features in these two exciting releases.

SQL Server Management Studio 18.4 features

General SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Management Objects and scripting

  • Supports the script of a materialized view in SQL Data Warehouse

Data classification

  • Added support for a custom information protection policy for data classification

Query store

  • Added the “Max plan per query” value in the dialog properties
  • Added support for the new custom capture policies

Key bug fixes include:

General SQL Server Management Studio

  • Object Explorer
    • Fixed an issue where dropping an Azure SQL Database in Object Explorer was showing an inaccurate error message.
  • SQL Agent
    • Fixed an issue where the agent operator UI would not update the operator name when it was changed in the UI and it wouldn’t be scripted. See the feedback forum to learn more.
  • General SQL Server Management Studio
    • Fixed a long outstanding issue where SQL Server Management Studio wasn’t honoring the connection information passed at the command line when SQL files were also specified.
    • Mitigated the removal of the -P command line option by having SQL Server Management Studio look at its cache of credentials. If the required credential was found, the connection would be established using it.
    • Fixed a crash in SQL Server Management Studio while trying to display securables on “Replication Filter” objects.
  • Query result
    • Fixed an issue introduced in SQL Server Management Studio 18.3.1, where grids would be drawn slightly too narrow and show “…” at the end of the longest string in every column.
  • SQL Management Objects and scripting
    • Fixed an issue when “Script table as…” for SQL Data Warehouse whose collation was Japanese_BIN2 wasn’t working.
    • Fixed an issue where ScriptAlter() ended up executing the statements on the server.
  • Import flat file
    • Fixed an issue where “Import flat file” functionality wasn’t handling text qualifiers correctly.
  • Replication tools
    • Fixed an issue that was causing the application to throw an error (“Could not load file or assembly…”) when trying to edit SQL Agent jobs

Please see the SQL Server Management Studio release notes for a comprehensive list of bug fixes.

Sqlpackage v18.4 features

New features include:

  • Added support to deploy to Azure SQL Data Warehouse
  • Added support for new Azure database editions including GeneralPurpose, BusinessCritical, and Hyperscale
  • Added Azure SQL Database Managed Instance support for Azure Active Directory users and groups
  • Supports the /AccessToken parameter for sqlpackage on .NET Core
  • Removed SHA1code signing

View the complete set of release notes to learn more.

To learn more about sqlpackage, read our documentation.

As always, we’re here to listen and would love to hear from you with any questions, comments, or feature suggestions.