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This article lists the features and fixes delivered by the released versions of SqlPackage.
How to read these release notes
The Applies to column in each section is scoped as follows:
- SqlPackage CLI - command-line actions (publish, import, export, extract, Parquet, diagnostics, dotnet tool)
- MSBuild / SQL projects - SQL project build (
Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) integration)
- DacFx API / Schema compare -
Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx NuGet APIs, schema compare
- Platform - ScriptDom, Microsoft.Data.SqlClient, .NET support, system DACPACs, compatibility defaults
Current releases (170.x)
The following releases are the currently supported versions of SqlPackage.
170.3.93 SqlPackage
Release date: February 10, 2026
dotnet tool install -g microsoft.sqlpackage --version 170.3.93
Features
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Deployment |
Added support for database options ACCELERATED_DATABASE_RECOVERY and OPTIMIZED_LOCKING. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Permissions |
Enhances permission publishing to include EXECUTE ON EXTERNAL MODEL permissions. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Platform |
Added .NET 10 support to the DacFx library and the SqlPackage CLI. The SqlPackage dotnet tool is available for both .NET 8 and .NET 10. |
Platform; SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Platform |
Added .NET Standard 2.0 support to the DacFx library. |
Platform; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Platform |
References Microsoft.Data.SqlClient v6.1.3. |
Platform |
| ScriptDom |
Updated ScriptDom to version 170.157.0. |
Platform |
| Vector |
Extends vector column support to allow changing the base type. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
Fixes
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Deployment |
Fixed a bug with deploying to SQL database in Microsoft Fabric when the target database includes a security policy. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Export |
Fixed an issue where exported .dacpac files fail XSD schema validation due to boolean attribute values using True/False values instead of lowercase true/false. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Import |
Fixed an issue where importing a table with special characters in the name (such as /, ", or $) silently fails to import data without warning the user. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Ledger |
Fixed an issue where a ledger table with a computed column causes a NullReferenceException during model validation and build. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| SQL projects |
Fixed an issue where building a SQL project with an inline clustered columnstore index definition on a table fails with a syntax error. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| SQL projects |
Fixed an issue where a clustered columnstore index on a table with NVARCHAR(MAX) or other LOB-type columns incorrectly reports an error that columnstore indexes aren't supported with vector columns. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| Vector |
Fixed an issue where procedures using VECTOR_SEARCH report a validation warning that the column reference couldn't be resolved. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
170.2.70 SqlPackage
Release date: October 14, 2025
dotnet tool install -g microsoft.sqlpackage --version 170.2.70
Features
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| External models |
Added support for external models in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025 (17.x) for import, export, extract, deployment, and SQL project build. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| External models |
Added support for functions AI_GENERATE_CHUNKS and AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| JSON |
Added support for JSON indexes in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025 (17.x) for import, export, extract, deployment, and SQL project build. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| JSON |
Added support for JSON functions JSON_ARRAYAGG, JSON_OBJECTAGG, and JSON_QUERY. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Platform |
The SqlPackage .zip build .NET SDK is updated to 8.0.414 |
Platform; SqlPackage CLI |
| Regex |
Added support for the REGEXP_LIKE function. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| ScriptDom |
Updated ScriptDom to version 170.128.0. |
Platform |
| Vector |
Added support for the vector indexes in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2025 (17.x) for import, export, extract, deployment, and SQL project build. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Vector |
Expands support for vector data type to SQL Server 2025 (17.x) and specifying the 32-bit float size. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Vector |
Added support for Vector function VECTOR_SEARCH. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
Fixes
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Data masking |
Fixed an issue where the datetime data masking functions weren't recognized during project build. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| External models |
Fixed an issue where external model dependencies on a database-scoped credential cause the project build to fail. |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| JSON |
Fixed a bug when comparing JSON indexes with the default JSON path. |
DacFx API / Schema compare; SqlPackage CLI |
| Platform |
References Microsoft.Data.SqlClient v5.1.7. |
Platform |
| XML |
Fixed an issue where the XML query path (xQuery) wasn't treated as case-sensitive during model comparison. Even on case-insensitive databases, the xQuery path is case-sensitive. GitHub issue |
DacFx API / Schema compare; SqlPackage CLI |
170.1.61 SqlPackage
Release date: July 30, 2025
dotnet tool install -g microsoft.sqlpackage --version 170.1.61
Features
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Data virtualization |
Added support for objects related to data virtualization for Azure SQL Database in import, export, extract, and publish operations. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Data virtualization |
Added Azure SQL Database to the publish with parquet files preview, enabling the use of Azure Blob Storage and parquet files to import data to a database. Extracting data to parquet files isn't available for Azure SQL Database as it depends on functionality not available in Azure SQL Database, CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Deployment |
Added support for publish properties /p:IgnorePreDeployScript and /p:IgnorePostDeployScript. These properties default to false and when enabled result in the deployment plan omitting the corresponding scripts. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Permissions |
Added support for the permission ALTER ANY EXTERNAL MIRROR for Azure SQL Database and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. This permission is required to export a database that contains one or more mirrored tables. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Permissions |
Added support for the permissions CREATE ANY EXTERNAL MODEL and ALTER ANY EXTERNAL MODEL for SQL Server 2025 (17.x). |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Permissions |
Added support for the permission ALTER ANY INFORMATION PROTECTION for SQL Server 2025 (17.x) and Azure SQL Database. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Platform |
The SqlPackage .zip build .NET SDK is updated to 8.0.412. |
Platform; SqlPackage CLI |
| ScriptDom |
Updated ScriptDom to version 170.0.64. |
Platform |
| ScriptDom |
Updates the Data warehouse in Fabric platform to use the TSqlFabricDWParser in ScriptDom. |
Platform; DacFx API / Schema compare |
Fixes
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Always Encrypted |
Fixed an issue where the Interactive option for the /AzureKeyVaultAuthMethod publish parameter wasn't working correctly. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where the DbScopedConfigMaxDOPSecondary property wasn't set correctly in the deployment. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where publishing tables containing foreign key constraints fails with syntax not supported in Data warehouse in Microsoft Fabric. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where server objects were included when deploying to SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. Server objects aren't supported in SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where clustered columnstore indexes are created by first creating a clustered index, which increases deployment overhead and time. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Extract |
Fixed an issue where extracting a database from SQL database in Microsoft Fabric results in unusable user definition scripts. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
170.0.94 SqlPackage
Release date: April 15, 2025
dotnet tool install -g microsoft.sqlpackage --version 170.0.94
Features
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| DACPACVerify |
Support for verifying the contents of two .dacpac files is added in the preview tool Microsoft.DacpacVerify. |
DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Extract |
Added support for unpacking a .dacpac file to a folder. The /Action:Extract command is used with /SourceFile: and /TargetFile: parameters. The target file must be a folder and when a source file (.dacpac) is specified no database connection properties are valid. The property /p:ExtractTarget=SchemaObjectType is required for extracting from a .dacpac file instead of a source database. The executable Dacunpack.exe is removed from the DacFx.msi installer. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Parquet |
Added support for the data types timestamp, rowversion, uniqueidentifier, text, ntext, image, json, xml, and vector when using Parquet files in Azure Blob Storage with SqlPackage extract and publish operations. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Parquet |
Added support for exporting and importing table data to BCP files when the table contains an unsupported data type while using Parquet files in Azure Blob Storage for the remaining data with SqlPackage extract and publish operations. An example data type is sql_variant, and a table containing a column of that type is written to BCP in the .dacpac while the remaining tables are written to Parquet files in Azure Blob Storage. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Platform |
Updated SqlPackage for .NET Framework version to .NET Framework 4.7.2. |
Platform; SqlPackage CLI |
| Platform |
Removed support for .NET 6. |
Platform; SqlPackage CLI |
| ScriptDom |
Updated ScriptDom to version 170.18.0. |
Platform |
| SQL projects |
The default compatibility level for Azure SQL Database and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric is now set to 170. For more information, see Database compatibility level 170 in Azure SQL Database and SQL database in Microsoft Fabric. |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| Vector |
Vector data type is now supported in the target platform Azure SQL Database for import, export, extract, deployment, and SQL project build. |
SqlPackage CLI; MSBuild / SQL projects; DacFx API / Schema compare |
Fixes
| Feature |
Details |
Applies to |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where deploying a change to an external table causes all external tables to be dropped and recreated if the modified table contained no values for REJECT_VALUE or REJECT_SAMPLE_VALUE. |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where altering a column to expand its length results in an incorrect data loss warning if the column's collation is specified and matches the database default collation. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Deployment |
Fixed an issue where sensitivity classification changes on a table cause indexes to be recreated. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Export |
Optimized the use of table size estimation during export operations. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Extract |
Fixed an issue where extracting a .dacpac with a database reference fails. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI; DacFx API / Schema compare |
| Fabric Data Warehouse |
Fixed an issue where the sp_refreshsqlmodule system stored procedure is called during a publish operation. Fabric Data Warehouse doesn't support sp_refreshsqlmodule and this causes the deployment to fail. |
SqlPackage CLI |
| Fabric Data Warehouse |
Fixed an issue where table constraints are included in a .dacpac but not .sql files when a database was extracted from a Fabric Data Warehouse. GitHub issue |
SqlPackage CLI |
| SQL projects |
Fixed an issue where building without SSDT installed in Visual Studio results in incorrect build behavior. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| SQL projects |
Fixed an issue where build warnings are duplicated in output when code analysis is enabled. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
| SQL projects |
Fixed an issue where service broker parameters set to variables result in false warnings. GitHub issue |
MSBuild / SQL projects |
Archived releases (162.x and earlier versions)
You can find release notes for version 162.x and older versions in the Release notes for SqlPackage (archive).