SQL Server (Edge)

Last updated on Jan 22, 2026

Supported Configurations

Supportability Category	Supported Values
Database versions	2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022
Maximum table count per connection	15000
Maximum column count per table	1019
Connection limit per database	No limit
Transport Layer Security (TLS)	1.2
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)	Not supported

Supported Features

Feature Name	Supported
Capture deletes	Yes
Custom data (user-configured tables & fields)	No
Data blocking (skip objects and fields)	Yes
Resync (objects and Pipelines)	Yes
API configurable	No
Connecting through a private link	Connections via AWS PrivateLink are allowed. Subscription to a business plan is required.

Supported Instance Types

Instance Types	Supported
Amazon RDS SQL Server
Primary instance	Yes
Availability group replica	No
Azure SQL Server
Primary instance	Yes
Availability group replica	No
Generic SQL Server
Primary instance	Yes
Availability group replica	No
Google Cloud SQL Server
Primary instance	Yes
Availability group replica	No

Supported Ingestion Modes

Hevo replicates data from SQL Server using its built-in Change Tracking (CT) and Change Data Capture (CDC) features. Before adding the SQL Server database as a Source in your Pipeline, you must enable at least one of these data tracking mechanisms at the database and table levels. For each Source table, Hevo ingests data using the tracking method enabled for that table. If neither CT nor CDC is enabled, Hevo cannot ingest data from that table and marks it as inaccessible in the Pipeline.

You can use change tracking when only the latest data is needed, and change data capture when you need to track data changes, including the order and type of operations applied to the data. When both mechanisms are enabled, Hevo uses CDC as the default ingestion mode.

Change Tracking

Change Tracking (CT) is a lightweight mechanism to track which rows in a table have changed. It does not record the order of changes or details of the values that were modified. CT captures only the primary key and the last effective operation type (insert, update, or delete) for the changed rows. SQL Server stores this information in an internal table that applications can query to determine the rows changed since the last data sync. The latest data is then fetched from the database table for the changed row.

Change Data Capture

Change Data Capture (CDC) obtains row-level changes by reading the SQL Server transaction logs. It records inserts, updates, and deletes along with before and after values, preserving the exact order of changes. SQL Server stores all the objects and metadata required for these row-level changes in the cdc schema. When CDC is enabled for the database and its tables, SQL Server automatically creates a dedicated cdc schema and user in that database. Applications fetch data that has changed since the last sync from this schema and apply it to the target tables.

Note: Currently, Hevo does not support CDC for its Generic SQL Server variant.

Comparing Change Tracking and Change Data Capture

The following table compares how CT and CDC handle incremental changes in the SQL Server database tables:

Feature	Change Tracking	Change Data Capture
Change detail	Tracks that a row was changed	Captures all row-level changes
Old and new values	Not available	Available
Change order	Not preserved	Preserved
Data source	Internal tracking metadata	Transaction log
Primary key	Cannot be enabled for tables without a primary key	Can be enabled, but SQL Server may use a non-unique index to capture data changes
Storage usage	Low	Higher due to the `cdc` schema

Revision History

Refer to the following table for the list of key updates made to this page:

Date	Release	Description of Change
Jan-23-2026	NA	Added Supported Ingestion Modes section to explain the supported data tracking mechanisms.