Microsoft has announced several software deprecations that will significantly affect enterprise database monitoring by moving away from traditional on-premises management tools toward the Azure cloud ecosystem. It announced that SCOM Management Packs for SSRS, PBIRS, and SSAS will reach “End of Support” in January 2027.
As a bit of background to this alphabet soup, SCOM stands for System Center Operations Manager; it is a cross-platform monitoring system for operating systems and hardware that companies can use to watch over their entire IT infrastructure. SSRS refers to SQL Server Reporting Services; it is a server-based report generating software system used to create, deploy, and manage charts and data reports.
PBIRS is short for Power BI Report Server; it is an on-premises report server with a web portal that lets you display and manage reports for KPIs. Finally, SSAS refers to SQL Server Analysis Services; this is an online analytical data engine used for business intelligence and data mining.
These management packs that are being deprecated serve as important tools for IT administrations as they let you know if reporting and analysis services are running or if they’ve crashed, alert admins whether a database is getting too slow or if a server is running out of memory, they can auto trigger fixes if a known error occurs, and they provide a UI where a manager can see the status for all their SQL services around the world.
Many of the enterprise customers who use these tools have historically kept their servers on-premises for security or legacy reasons, but if they want to upgrade to SQL Server 2025 then enterprises will need to switch to Azure-based monitoring services. These are entirely different from the tools being deprecated so it could lead to retraining costs. Furthermore, Azure Monitor is billed based on the amount of ingested data which may change a company’s monthly IT budget compared to SCOM’s fixed license cost.
This is just another nudge from Microsoft to enterprises to finally connect their local servers to the Azure Cloud via Azure Arc. Microsoft’s new solution works on both cloud and local on-premises servers and offers key benefits such as scalability, centralized telemetry, and modern dashboards.
For enterprises that want to switch, Microsoft provided these steps:
- Enable Azure Arc on your SSRS/PBIRS and SSAS servers to register and manage them into Azure.
- Install the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) on each Arc-enabled server to enable telemetry collection.
- Create a Log Analytics Workspace to centralize monitoring data for analysis and alerting.
- Define Data Collection Rules (DCRs) to gather performance counters, event logs, and custom logs.
- Configure alerts for service health, performance thresholds, and configuration issues.
- Build dashboards and reports for real-time and historical insights using Azure Monitor Workbooks.
Right now, we are in phase 1 of the sunsetting of these tools. The deprecation has been announced and no new features or security updates are due. Phase 2 will take place in January 2027 where support will end entirely. For those who will be affected, it is time to start planning the migration now.