Want to upgrade any Azure SQL Database resources

Hi NYC Admin,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

This retirement notice is about the management plane for Azure SQL (the REST/ARM API used by ARM/Bicep templates, SDKs, scripts, Azure Automation, etc.)—not about application connections to your databases (ADO.NET/JDBC/ODBC). You should update any tooling that still specifies api-version=2014-04-01 to a newer stable API (e.g., 2021‑11‑01). Note that Microsoft has extended the retirement date from 31 Oct 2025 to 30 Jun 2026, but it’s best to update now to avoid surprises.

https://free.blessedness.top/en-us/rest/api/sql/retirement

Find what needs changing

• IaC repos: search for 2014-04-01 (e.g., git grep -n "2014-04-01").
• Portal: each SQL resource → Export template/JSON view → look for "apiVersion": "2014-04-01".
• (Optional) ARG to scope resource types in estate (note: not your template apiVersion): Resources | where type startswith 'microsoft.sql/' | distinct type, apiVersion
• Make the change
• Bicep/ARM: bump the apiVersion. Example:

// before

resource sql 'Microsoft.Sql/servers@2014-04-01' = { ... }

// after

resource sql 'Microsoft.Sql/servers@2023-08-01' = {

name: serverName

location: location

properties: {

administratorLogin: adminUser

administratorLoginPassword: adminPwd

// common newer props if you use them:

minimalTlsVersion: '1.2'

publicNetworkAccess: 'Enabled'

}

}

• CLI/PowerShell/SDKs: remove any hard-coded --api-version 2014-04-01 and use current tool versions.

Validate before rollout

• What-If: az deployment group what-if -g <rg> -f main.bicep -p @params.json or subscription-level: az deployment sub what-if -l <location> -f main.bicep -p @params.json
• Test a non-prod deploy, then prod.

Pipeline guardrails (to avoid regressions)

Enable Bicep linter rule use-recent-api-versions in bicepconfig.json.

Add a PR check to block 2014-04-01 strings in templates.

Optionally, an Azure Policy to audit disallowed apiVersions.

Notes

• This is management-plane only; data-plane/app connections aren’t affected.
• Some child resources may still have preview variants—use the “allversions” page above to confirm a stable apiVersion per type.

I hope this information is helpful! If you still have questions or you come across issues, please let us know what is needed in the comments so this question can be answered.

Thanks,

Abhisek