Guide: Using Microsoft SQL Server with Databox

 

2. Open Advanced Settings and validate that Port 1433 is selected. You may also enter a custom Port here. 

3. If you’ve made any changes, restart your Microsoft SQL server to make sure it's fully accepted the updates

4. Run the command  netstat - an in cmd.exe to ensure the service is listening to the Port

Make sure Port forwarding is set up for your Firewall. In our example, Port 1433 must be reachable from Databox's public IP (52.4.198.118). If this is not done, timeout errors will occur when attempting to connect remotely. 

5. For our Database, Full Text Extraction must be enabled. This can be configured from the  SQL Server Setup window in the Features Selection section.

6. Login to the default Datase with Windows Authentication mode. Right click on the Server Name and select Properties. Click on the Security tab and set Server Authentication as SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode.

 

7. For our example, we'll download the AdventureWorks sample Database from GitHub:  AdventureWorks.zip.

We'll unpack this in the folder  c:\Samples\AdventureWorks and open the instawdb.sql file in our SQL Server. Choose the SQLCMD Mode option from the Query Menu.

If the SQL file is not stored in the default location or if you want to customize the Database name, update the two vars as you see fit.

 

8. Execute the script by pressing F5

 

9 The Status message at the bottom will inform us if there are any errors. If not, we will receive the following message: 

1. First, we'll expand the Security tab by right-clicking on Login and selecting New Login

2. We'll enter Remote as a Login Name, SQL Server Authentication as the Authentication Type, and a password

 

3. Next, we'll click on User Mapping and map the Database to our new user. To do this, we'll select db_datareader so the user can read/ view the Table, but not write to it. 

For further security considerations, feel free to consult Microsoft's SQL Server Documentation.

How to connect Microsoft SQL to Databox

Once our Database is properly prepared, we'll connect it to Databox.

To connect Microsoft SQL to Databox, go to Data Sources > + New connection. Type SQL in the search bar and click on the green Connect button. 

This will open the Activation window, which is where you will be prompted to enter your connection data and authorize the Databox app. 

Enter an arbitrary name for this connection and all the additional information you’re prompted to add.

Click Activate. If a timeout error occurs, Databox couldn’t connect to the server. This is possibly due to a Firewall issue. In this case, check to ensure you have forwarded the Port and enabled it for Databox's public IP (52.4.198.118).

How to use the Metric Builder for Microsoft SQL

The Metric Builder for Microsoft SQL allows you to create Custom Metrics using data from your Database to use in Databoards, Alerts, Goals, etc. Learn more about the Metric Builder for Microsoft SQL here.

Additional Information

• Make sure your Firewall is open to Databox's public IP and your Port is correctly forwarded to the server
• Query results are limited to 10,000 rows. If you expect your query to return over 10,000 rows or if you're not sure how many rows will be returned, be sure to limit the query by using TOP 10000 in the SELECT statement. If you need more than 10,000 rows in order to successfully report on your Microsoft SQL data in Databox, feel free to submit your request on our Roadmap here.
• The query must contain a column named "Date." If you need to, use AS in your SELECT statement to satisfy this requirement
• One column should always contain the Metric Value
• "Null" values will not be recognized. Use a COALESCE function when needed. Learn more here.
• A connection error can occur if you use some special characters in your Microsoft SQL password. We advise you to not use special characters from the list below, as it may cause encoding issues during the connection of the data source. Please check if the following are included in your Microsoft SQL password and replace them with other characters:

, ' " / \ and spaces"