Welcome back!  We hope you enjoyed all the content and updates from the 2022 edition of Microsoft Build. Developers were able to watch and virtually attend over 500 different live sessions covering topics ranging from Java, Kubernetes, and Azure Cosmos DB, and more! Check out the video below for the full recap on the new and exciting features we announced for Azure Cosmos DB at this year’s Build. 

In this episode of Azure Cosmos DB Live Mark and his guests from the Azure Cosmos DB Program Management team will discuss and recap all the new announcements around Azure Cosmos DB at the 2022 edition of Microsoft Build. Learn right from the source about all the new features you can utilize for your Azure Cosmos DB powered applications.  

Want to learn more about Azure Cosmos DB and what’s new with Microsoft? All sessions are recorded and can be accessed on demand for free using this link. 

00:00:00 – Opening 00:01:55 – Mark welcomes Estefani, Deborah, and Gahl 00:03:20 – New feature: Configure RBAC for your Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB (preview)  00:12:26 – New Feature: Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB extension (Preview) 00:22:31 – Elasticity updates 00:31:58 – Demo of elasticity updates 00:51:40 – Burst capacity (preview) demo 00:57:16 – Throughput redistribution across partitions 01:07:13 – Signing up for preview features 

New Azure Cosmos DB Features:

Azure Data Studio to connect and query Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB (Preview)  

You can now use Azure Data Studio to connect and query Azure Cosmos DB API for MongoDB. Azure Data Studio is a cross-platform database tool for data professionals who use on-premises and cloud data platforms on Windows, macOS, and Linux. 

Azure Data Studio offers a modern editor experience with IntelliSense, code snippets, source control integration, and an integrated terminal. It’s engineered with the data platform user in mind, with the built-in charting of query result sets and customizable dashboards.

Burst capacity in Azure Cosmos DB (preview) Azure Cosmos DB burst capacity (preview) allows you to take advantage of your database or container’s idle throughput capacity to handle spikes of traffic. With burst capacity, each physical partition can accumulate up to 5 minutes of idle capacity, which can be consumed at a rate up to 3000 RU/s. With burst capacity, requests that would have otherwise been rate limited can now be served with burst capacity while it’s available. 

Burst capacity applies only to Azure Cosmos DB accounts using provisioned throughput (manual and autoscale) and doesn’t apply to serverless containers. The feature is configured at the Azure Cosmos DB account level and will automatically apply to all databases and containers in the account that have physical partitions with less than 3000 RU/s of provisioned throughput. Resources that have greater than or equal to 3000 RU/s per physical partition won’t benefit from or be able to use burst capacity. 

Redistribute throughput across partitions (preview) 

By default, Azure Cosmos DB distributes the provisioned throughput of a database or container equally across all physical partitions. However, scenarios may arise where due to a skew in the workload or choice of partition key, certain logical (and thus physical) partitions need more throughput than others. For these scenarios, Azure Cosmos DB gives you the ability to redistribute your provisioned throughput across physical partitions. Redistributing throughput across partitions helps you achieve better performance without having to configure your overall throughput based on the hottest partition. 

The throughput redistributing feature applies to databases and containers using provisioned throughput (manual and autoscale) and doesn’t apply to serverless containers. You can change the throughput per physical partition using the Azure Cosmos DB PowerShell commands. 

1TB serverless container capacity 

Serverless containers up to 1 TB are currently in preview with Azure Cosmos DB. To try the new feature, register the “Azure Cosmos DB Serverless 1 TB Container Preview” preview feature in your Azure subscription.

The Azure Cosmos DB serverless offering lets you use your Azure Cosmos account in a consumption-based fashion. With serverless, you’re only charged for the Request Units (RUs) consumed by your database operations and the storage consumed by your data. Serverless containers can serve thousands of requests per second with no minimum charge and no capacity planning required. 

Merge partitions in Azure Cosmos DB (preview) 

Merging partitions in Azure Cosmos DB (preview) allows you to reduce the number of physical partitions used for your container. With merge, containers that are fragmented in throughput (have low RU/s per partition) or storage (have low storage per partition) can have their physical partitions reworked. If a container’s throughput has been scaled up and needs to be scaled back down, merge can help resolve throughput fragmentation issues. For the same amount of provisioned RU/s, having fewer physical partitions means each physical partition gets more of the overall RU/s. Minimizing partitions reduces the chance of rate limiting if a large quantity of data is removed from a container. Merge can help clear out unused or empty partitions, effectively resolving storage fragmentation problems. 

Here are the links to all of the announcements we highlighted in this episode: RBAC for MongoDB API Burst Capacity  Throughput Redistribution  1TB Serverless Support Partition Merge  Playlist for all episodes of Azure Cosmos DB TV Live  Try Azure Cosmos DB   

About Azure Cosmos DB 

Azure Cosmos DB is a fast and scalable cloud database for modern app development. Single-digit millisecond response times, and automatic and instant scalability, guarantee speed at any scale. Business continuity is assured with SLA-backed 99.999% availability and enterprise-grade security. App development is faster and more productive thanks to turnkey multi-master data distribution anywhere in the world, open source APIs, and SDKs for popular languages. See how to get started, dev/test, and run small production workloads free. 

Get Started with Azure Cosmos DB 

Azure Cosmos DB is a fully managed NoSQL database for modern app development with SLA-backed speed and availability, automatic and instant scalability, and open-source APIs for MongoDB, Cassandra, and other NoSQL engines. Discover features or capabilities at www.AzureCosmosDB.com or get started for free.