Microsoft SQL Server connection

You can create a connection asset for Microsoft SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system.

Supported versions

• Microsoft SQL Server 2000+
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.0

Create a connection to Microsoft SQL Server

To create the connection asset, you need these connection details:

• Database name
• Hostname or IP address
• Either the Port number or the Instance name. Use the Instance name if the server is configured for dynamic ports.
• Username and password
• SSL certificate (if required by the database server)

For Credentials and Certificates, you can use secrets if a vault is configured for the platform and the service supports vaults. For information, see Using secrets from vaults in connections.

Choose the method for creating a connection based on where you are in the platform

In a project Click Add to project > Connection. See Adding a connection to a project.

In a catalog Click Add to catalog > Connection. See Adding a connection asset to a catalog.

In a deployment space Click Add to space > Connection. See Adding connections to a deployment space.

In the Platform assets catalog Click New connection. See Adding platform connections.

Next step: Add data assets from the connection

• See Add data from a connection in a project.
• See Add data from a connection in a catalog.

Where you can use this connection

You can use Microsoft SQL Server connections in the following workspaces and tools:

Analytics projects

• AutoAI (Watson Machine Learning)
• Cognos Dashboards (Watson Studio
• Data Refinery (Watson Studio or Watson Knowledge Catalog)
• DataStage (DataStage service)
• Metadata import (Watson Knowledge Catalog)
• Notebooks (Watson Studio). Use the insert-to-code function to get the connection credentials and load the data into a data structure. See Load data from data source connections.
• SPSS Modeler (SPSS Modeler service)

Catalogs

• Platform assets catalog
• Other catalogs (Watson Knowledge Catalog)

Data Virtualization service You can connect to this data source from Data Virtualization.

Microsoft SQL Server setup

Microsoft SQL Server installation

Restriction

Windows Authentication is not supported. As an alternative, you can create a Generic JDBC connection with the latest Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server. For an example JDBC URL, see Generic JDBC connection.

Running SQL statements

To ensure that your SQL statements run correctly, refer to the Microsoft SQL Server documentation for the correct syntax.

Learn more

Microsoft SQL Server documentation

Parent topic: Supported connections