Microsoft SQL Server connection

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 the following connection details:

  • Database name
  • Hostname or IP address
  • Either the Port number or the Instance name. If the server is configured for dynamic ports, use the Instance name.
  • Username and password
  • Select Use Active Directory if the Microsoft SQL Server has been set up in a domain that uses NTLM (New Technology LAN Manager) authentication. Then enter the name of the domain that is associated with the 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 Assets > New asset > Data access tools > 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

Where you can use this connection

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

Projects

  • AutoAI (Watson Machine Learning)

  • Cognos Dashboards (Cognos Dashboards service)

  • Data quality rules (IBM Knowledge Catalog)

  • Data Refinery (Watson Studio or IBM Knowledge Catalog)

  • DataStage (DataStage service). For more information, see Connecting to a data source in DataStage.

  • Decision Optimization (Watson Studio and Watson Machine Learning)

  • Metadata enrichment (IBM Knowledge Catalog)

  • Metadata import (IBM Knowledge Catalog). For information about the supported product versions and other prerequisites when connections are based on MANTA Automated Data Lineage for IBM Cloud Pak for Data scanners, see the Lineage Scanner Configuration section in the MANTA Automated Data Lineage on IBM Cloud Pak for Data Installation and Usage Manual. This documentation is available at https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6597457.

    For metadata import (lineage), MANTA Automated Data Lineage for IBM Cloud Pak for Data and a corresponding license key must be installed. See Installing MANTA Automated Data Lineage and Enabling lineage import.

  • Notebooks (Watson Studio). Click Read data on the Code snippets pane 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)

  • Synthetic Data Generator (Synthetic Data Generator service)

  • Watson Machine Learning Accelerator (Watson Machine Learning Accelerator service)

Catalogs

  • Platform assets catalog

  • Other catalogs (IBM Knowledge Catalog)

Watson Query service
You can connect to this data source from Watson Query.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance

  • 4.8.0 and 4.8.1: This connection is compliant with FIPS if you installed Cloud Pak for Data on or prior to January, 22, 2024.
  • 4.8.2 and later: This connection is not compliant with FIPS, but it is FIPS-tolerant.

Microsoft SQL Server setup

Microsoft SQL Server installation

Restriction

Except for NTLM authentication, Windows Authentication is not supported.

For other forms of Windows authentication to Microsoft SQL Server, 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. Alternatively a Cloud Pak for Data administrator can create a Custom JDBC connector.

Running SQL statements

To ensure that your SQL statements run correctly, refer to the Transact-SQL Reference for the correct syntax.

Learn more

Microsoft SQL Server documentation

Parent topic: Supported connections