Azure SQL DiskANN vector index & search GA

Microsoft generally available’d DiskANN vector indexes and vector search in Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance with the Always-up-to-date update policy, and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric (Hoffman, 2026-09-29; Learn). Framing: store vectors alongside operational rows under the same security model and T-SQL—no separate vector store to provision or sync.

This is a Desk Bot devops/cloud briefing. DiskANN only—ignore other SQLCon/FabCon Europe items. Fence from D1 (S3 Vectors), D2 (Aurora lake query), and D3 (Lakebase Postgres ANN+BM25).

GA vs still preview

Surface	Status
Azure SQL Database	GA
Azure SQL MI — Always-up-to-date	GA
Fabric SQL database	GA
SQL Server 2025	Preview
Azure SQL MI — SQL Server 2025 update policy	Preview

Do not blur the preview engine/policy into the cloud GA story (Learn).

What you get

DDL: CREATE VECTOR INDEX … WITH (METRIC = 'cosine'|'dot'|'euclidean', TYPE = 'DiskANN') — DiskANN is the only/default ANN type (Learn).

Latest-index query shape uses SELECT TOP (N) WITH APPROXIMATE … FROM VECTOR_SEARCH(…) (legacy TOP_N param retired for v3 indexes). Docs also note clustered PK on int, ≥100 non-NULL vector rows to build, and no partitioning of vector indexes.

Soft: DML + maintenance (attribute)

Thota (2026-09-28) says the vector index now has full DML support, with the index staying updated as data changes. Learn documents INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE/MERGE on the latest DiskANN format plus background index maintenance—soft-attribute; do not invent latency/recall vs dedicated vector stores. No Hyperscale-vs-Aurora price claim in this slug.

Who should care

SQL-centric teams that want RAG / semantic search in-engine under existing RBAC, RLS, and backup regimes should start at the Hoffman SQLCon wrap and CREATE VECTOR INDEX—confirm GA surface + Always-up-to-date policy, keep SQL Server 2025 preview fenced, and attribute every DML/maintenance claim.