Retirement of SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) OLE DB provider for linked servers in Azure SQL Managed Instance
Published date: May 05, 2023
The second generation of Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server – known as SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) OLE DB provider or SQLNCLI - will be retired from use in linked server feature in Azure SQL Managed Instance starting late May and early June 2023.
All existing linked server objects configured to use SQLNCLI will automatically switch to using the fully compatible third (current) generation of provider – known as Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server or MSOLEDBSQL.
Creation of new linked servers to other managed instance resources or instances of SQL Server will be possible only with MSOLEDBSQL provider specified.
For more details, see Retirement of SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) for linked servers in Azure SQL Managed Instance