Watermarkless Change Data Capture (CDC) for SQL Server in Estuary Flow

Introducing Watermarkless Change Data Capture (CDC) for SQL Server in Estuary Flow

We're excited to announce a major upgrade to Estuary Flow’s SQL Server connector: Watermarkless Change Data Capture (CDC) for SQL Server. This enhancement makes real-time data movement from SQL Server faster, more secure, and easier to manage—perfectly aligned with modern data integration needs.

What’s New?

With this update, Estuary Flow now supports CDC from SQL Server without the need for watermark writes. This new functionality exists alongside the traditional watermark-based mechanism, giving you the flexibility to choose the best fit for your environment.

Why This Matters

Truly Watermarkless CDC: Eliminate the need for watermark tables and avoid any writes to the source database. This minimizes operational overhead and reduces security concerns related to write permissions.

Simplified Permissions: The new implementation only requires VIEW DATABASE STATE permission (or VIEW DATABASE PERFORMANCE STATE for SQL Server 2022+), making setup easier in read-only or restricted environments.

Seamless Transition: Existing captures continue to work with watermark-based CDC. New captures can opt into the watermarkless mode by adding the read_only feature flag in the advanced endpoint configuration.

How to Enable

For New Captures: Add the read_only feature flag in your advanced endpoint config to enable watermarkless CDC.

For Existing Captures: No changes are required immediately. We plan to flip the default behavior after further testing, but you'll always have the option to opt in or out as needed using read_only or no_read_only feature flags.

Get Started Today

Ready to simplify your SQL Server CDC workflows? Head over to Estuary Flow, set up your capture with the read_only flag, and experience the benefits of watermarkless CDC.

For detailed documentation, visit Estuary Flow Docs.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to evolve Estuary Flow!