Using SSMS SQLCMD to connect to Azure SQLDB via Entra Auth

Question

I am struggling to find a way to connect to an Azure SQL SB, via SSMS:
SQL Server Management Studio 20.1.10.0

I have used:

:connect <Servername> -G

The response is:
A fatal scripting error occurred.

Incorrect syntax was encountered while parsing :connect.

Completion time: 2025-03-18T14:39:08.4309506+00:00

When I try to specify a user name and password:

:connect <Servername> -U <email address> -P <password>

It doesn't take the full email address (Perhaps because of the @ symbol)

Is there a way to connect to an Azure DB using SSMS and SQLCMD ?

Answer 1

It seems that this is not supported, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/tools/sqlcmd/edit-sqlcmd-scripts-query-editor?view=sql-server-ver16.

I agree that this is a surprising shortcoming. You can file a request for an enhancement at https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/SSMS