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The documentation for Database Migration Assistant claims that it will identify and flag any "deprecated features". However, this does not seem to be true in the least. I have a SQL Server on-premises database full of features that Microsoft's documentation considers to be deprecated. However, DMA does not detect ANY of these things in an assessment targeting Azure SQL Managed Instance.

Documentation: Overview of Data Migration Assistant

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Numerous "deprecated" features, such as returning result sets from triggers, using deprecated hash algorithms in the HASHBYTES function, and so on, are not appearing at all in the assessment results. Clearly, the documentation is incorrect.

Am I missing something here?

Pittsburgh DBA
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  • What is the current compatibility-level of your source database? What verson/edition/SKU are you running on-prem? – Dai Apr 14 '22 at 22:42
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    I'd bet $0.05 that those features will continue to work on the version that you're looking to migrate to. DMA is intended to identify anything that would cause the database not to be viable post-upgrade. MS doesn't use the term "deprecated" very accurately; Database Mirroring has been deprecated for a while (ten years now?) and yet it continues to be work on successive releases. – Ben Thul Apr 15 '22 at 03:50
  • @BenThul I agree. I think it is only going to identify discontinued features AKA breaking changes. The documentation is horrible, and it needs to stop saying it will discover deprecated features, because it does not. – Pittsburgh DBA Apr 15 '22 at 13:18
  • @Dai The on-premises version is 2008R2 – Pittsburgh DBA Apr 15 '22 at 13:21
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    @PittsburghDBA - it does, for one of MS's definitions of "deprecated" (the first being "we'll take this feature some day, you've been warned"; the second being "no really, the next version won't have that feature"). While I agree that the second definition would be better called "removed" (or something that differentiates it from definition one), I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon (if at all). So bringing it all the way back around - DMA is doing what MS intends. That is, identifying features that, if left in tact, will break your upgrade. – Ben Thul Apr 15 '22 at 16:42

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