Load data from Microsoft SQL Server

Learn how to connect to Microsoft SQL Server with Exasol and then load data.

Prerequisites

  • The SQL Server system must be reachable from the Exasol system.

  • The user credentials in the connection must be valid.

Download driver

  • Download the JDBC driver for SQL Server from Microsoft JDBC download . To know which JDBC driver is compatible with your database version, refer to the JDBC driver support matrix and policy .

  • You can also use the jTDS driver, which is an open source Java type 4 JDBC driver for Microsoft SQL Server, to connect to Exasol. You can download the jTDS driver for SQL Server from the Sourceforge website.

Add JDBC driver

  1. Create a configuration file settings.cfg with the following settings:

    Microsoft JDBC driver
    Copy 
    DRIVERNAME=MSSQLServer
    PREFIX=jdbc:sqlserver:
    FETCHSIZE=100000
    INSERTSIZE=-1
    jTDS JDBC driver
    Copy 
    DRIVERNAME=jtdssqlserver
    PREFIX=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver:
    FETCHSIZE=100000
    INSERTSIZE=-1

    The file must end with an empty line (line break followed by zero characters).

  2. Upload the settings.cfg file and the driver .jar file to BucketFS in the Exasol cluster.

    In Exasol 2025.1 and later you can upload files using Exasol Admin. You can also use any compatible file transfer tool, including curl on the command line. See also Manage files in BucketFS.

    In Exasol SaaS you must upload the driver through the web console.

    If the driver was downloaded as a .tar.gz or .zip archive, make sure that you extract and upload only the .jar file along with the settings.cfg file.

    Example (using curl in Linux):
    Copy 
    export WRITE_PW=<your_bucketfs_write_password>
    export DATABASE_NODE_IP=<ip_address_of_cluster_node>
    export PORT=<bucketfs_port> # default: 2581

    curl -v --insecure -X PUT -T settings.cfg https://w:$WRITE_PW@$DATABASE_NODE_IP:$PORT/default/drivers/jdbc/exasol/settings.cfg
    curl -v --insecure -X PUT -T exajdbc.jar https://w:$WRITE_PW@$DATABASE_NODE_IP:$PORT/default/drivers/jdbc/exasol/exajdbc.jar

    The option --insecure or -k tells curl to bypass the TLS certificate check. This option allows you to connect to a HTTPS server that does not have a valid certificate. Only use this option if certificate verification is not possible and you trust the server.

Connect using MSSQL JDBC driver

To create a connection, run the following statement. Replace the connection string and credentials as needed.

Copy 
CREATE OR REPLACE CONNECTION JDBC_SQLSERVER
    TO 'jdbc:sqlserver://192.168.99.100:1433;databaseName=MY_DATABASE;instance=v1'
    USER 'user'
    IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

To test the connection, run the following statement.

Copy 
select * from 
(
import from JDBC at JDBC_SQLSERVER
statement 'select ''Connection works'' '
);

Connect using jTDS JDBC driver

The jTDS connection string format used to connect to SQL Server is as follows: 

jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://{SERVER_NAME}/{DATABASE_NAME);instance={INSTANCE}

To create a connection, run the following statement. Replace the connection string and credentials as needed.

Copy 
CREATE OR REPLACE CONNECTION JDBC_SQLSERVER
    TO 'jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://192.168.99.100:1433/MY_DATABASE;instance=v1'
    USER 'username'
    IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

To test the connection, run the following statement:

Copy 
select * from 
(
import from JDBC at JDBC_SQLSERVER
statement 'select ''Connection works'' '
);

Windows authentication

You can use Windows authentication in conjunction with the jTDS driver by adding the parameters useNTLMv2=true and domain=[domain name]. For example:

Copy 
CREATE OR REPLACE CONNECTION JDBC_SQLSERVER
    TO 'jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://192.168.99.100:1433/MY_DATABASE;domain=AD;useNTLMv2=true;'
    USER 'username' -- Windows username
    IDENTIFIED BY 'password' --Windows password;

Load data

Use IMPORT to load data from a table or SQL statement using the connection that you created.