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Amazon RDS for SQL Server Developer Edition Now Supports Multi-AZ!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#infrastructure#devops

Hi, this is Shii-chan! Today I've got a nice update from AWS RDS for SQL Server, so let me walk you through it!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

This is news from AWS What's New. Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports Multi-AZ deployments using Always On Availability Groups on the Developer Edition. Multi-AZ deployments keep a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone (AZ) and automatically fail over when an infrastructure failure happens.

The story so far

Until now, Multi-AZ deployments with Always On Availability Groups were available on the license-paid Enterprise Edition, but not on the free Developer Edition. Developer Edition gives you all the functionality of Enterprise Edition at no license cost, but testing high-availability setups in a production-equivalent way just wasn't possible on it.

What changes

Now you can build Multi-AZ configurations right on Developer Edition, so you can validate production-equivalent high-availability architectures in non-production environments. Specifically, you can now:

  • Validate your high-availability architecture without paying for licensing
  • Test actual failover behavior
  • Develop and verify against production-equivalent configurations

This is great news for DBAs and infrastructure engineers who want to safely test HA setups without incurring Enterprise Edition licensing costs.

Dive Deep

Here's what's supported:

  • SQL Server Developer Edition 2019
  • SQL Server Developer Edition 2022
  • SQL Server 2025 Enterprise Developer Edition

Note that SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition does not support this feature. For regional availability, check the "Working with SQL Server Developer Edition on RDS for SQL Server" documentation, and for pricing details, see the "Amazon RDS for SQL Server Pricing" page.

Wrap-up

  • RDS for SQL Server's Developer Edition now supports Multi-AZ deployments with Always On Availability Groups
  • Supported versions: SQL Server Developer Edition 2019 and 2022, and SQL Server 2025 Enterprise Developer Edition
  • SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition is not supported
  • You can now validate and test production-equivalent HA setups without Enterprise Edition licensing costs

This update is great for anyone running RDS for SQL Server who wants to properly test high-availability configurations in non-production environments.

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