Discontinued Database Engine functionality in SQL Server

Applies to: SQL Server

This article describes the Database Engine features that are no longer available in SQL Server.

Discontinued features in SQL Server 2022 (16.x)

  • The following Machine Learning Services packages are no longer included with installation of SQL Server 2022 (16.x). Instead, you can install any custom packages as desired. For more information, see What's new in SQL Server Machine Learning Services?

    Language Package
    Python microsoftml (Python package in SQL Server Machine Learning Services)
    R olapR (R package in SQL Server Machine Learning Services)
    R sqlrutils (R package in SQL Server Machine Learning Services)
    R MicrosoftML (R package in SQL Server Machine Learning Services)
  • SQL Server Big Data Clusters will be retired. See information in SQL Server Big Data Clusters overview.

  • SQL Server PolyBase scale-out groups will be retired. Scale out group functionality is removed from the product in SQL Server 2022 (16.x). PolyBase data virtualization continues to be fully supported as a scale-up feature in SQL Server.

  • Support for Hadoop (HDFS) external data sources will be retired for SQL Server PolyBase.

  • See Changes to PolyBase support in SQL Server.

  • Starting in SQL Server 2022 (16.x), Hadoop external data sources are no longer supported. It's required to manually recreate external data sources previously created with TYPE = HADOOP, and any external table that uses this external data source. Users will also need to configure their external data sources to use new connectors when connecting to Azure Storage.

External Data Source From To
Azure Blob Storage wasb[s] abs
ADLS Gen 2 abfs[s] adls

Discontinued features in SQL Server 2019 (15.x)

The following database scoped configuration options are discontinued:

  • DISABLE_BATCH_MODE_ADAPTIVE_JOIN
  • DISABLE_BATCH_MODE_MEMORY_GRANT_FEEDBACK
  • DISABLE_INTERLEAVED_EXECUTION_TVF

For current configuration options, see ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION (Transact-SQL).

Discontinued features in SQL Server 2017 (14.x)

No features were discontinued in SQL Server 2017 (14.x).

Discontinued features in SQL Server 2016 (13.x)

  • SQL Server 2016 (13.x) is a 64-bit application. 32-bit installation is discontinued, though some elements run as 32-bit components.

  • Compatibility level 90 is discontinued. For more information, see ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL) compatibility level.

  • ActiveX subsystem is discontinued. Use command line or PowerShell scripts instead.

  • Startup parameters -h and -g. For more information, see Database Engine Service Startup Options.

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption is discontinued. Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) instead. For more information, see Configure SQL Server Database Engine for encrypting connections.

  • precompute rank Server configuration option was discontinued beginning with SQL Server 2008. The article has been removed from documentation.

Previous versions