Microsoft SQL Server ingestion connector

This page helps you understand the SQL Server ingestion workflow, including the factors that determine your setup approach and the steps involved for different user personas.

What to know before you start

Topic	Why it matters
Azure Databricks user persona	The workflow depends on your Azure Databricks user persona: Single-user: An admin user configures the source database and creates a Unity Catalog connection, an ingestion gateway, and an ingestion pipeline. Multi-user: An admin user configures the source database and creates a connection for non-admin users to create gateway-pipeline pairs with.
Database variation	The source database configuration depends on the SQL Server deployment environment.
Change tracking method	The source database configuration depends on how you choose to track changes in the source.
Authentication method	The steps to create a connection depend on the authentication method you choose.
Interface	The steps to create a connection, a gateway, and a pipeline depend on the interface.
Ingestion frequency	The pipeline schedule depends on your latency and cost requirements.

Overview of steps

The following table provides an overview of the end-to-end SQL Server ingestion workflow, depending on your user persona:

User	Steps
Admin	Configure Microsoft SQL Server for ingestion into Azure Databricks. Either: Use Catalog Explorer to create a connection so that non-admins can create gateway-pipeline pairs. See SQL Server. Use the data ingestion UI to create a connection, a gateway, and a pipeline. See Ingest data from SQL Server.
Non-admin	Use any supported interface to create a gateway and a pipeline. See Ingest data from SQL Server.