# Scheduling Synapse Dedicated SQL Pool

> Pausing a Synapse dedicated SQL pool stops the DWU meter, the dominant charge, billed per DWU-hour whether 0 queries run or 500. Storage bills separately either way. Pause cancels in-flight work and waits for rollback, so a large open transaction can stretch the pause by hours.

Source: https://zop.dev/integrations/azure/synapse-pool/schedule
Updated: 2026-08-19

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## DWU-hours are the whole game

A dedicated SQL pool bills its provisioned DWU level for every hour it is online, idle or
saturated. Pause is the only mechanism that stops that meter, and on mid-size pools the
stakes are large: the gap between 168 hours and 50 hours a week at a fixed DWU rate is the
kind of number that funds the rest of the cost program. No other single schedule in a Synapse
workspace moves as much money.

## Pause cancels work, then waits for it

Pausing is not instant and not gentle: running queries are cancelled and open transactions
roll back, and the pause completes only when rollback does. A bulk load that has been running
for six hours can hold the pause hostage for a comparable stretch while it unwinds. The
practical rule is to land the pause after the nightly load's completion, or to gate the load on
finishing before the window. That matters more here than on any stop-style schedule, because
rollback both delays the saving and wastes the interrupted work.

## Storage is a separate, indifferent line

Data in a dedicated pool bills per TB on its own meter, pause or no pause. The pause zeroes
compute only. Pools carrying tens of terabytes keep a substantial floor, and the honest
business case quotes DWU-hours saved next to the storage line that stays.

## Resume, then warm

Resume takes minutes before connections succeed, and the first queries recompile plans and
repopulate caches, so expect a sluggish first quarter-hour. Schedule resume ahead of the
morning's first scheduled refresh, and put a warm-up script in the gap if analysts hit
dashboards at 8:00 sharp.

## Where the schedule fits the shape of use

Dedicated pools are batch-and-business-hours creatures: load overnight or at dawn, query
during the day. A pause window from the end of the evening load to the pre-dawn resume
matches that rhythm and typically halves the pool's monthly compute without anyone noticing.