Error creating external table in dedicated SQL pool

Question

Hi, I'm trying to make an external table in a dedicated SQL pool using a Parquet file, but I'm getting this error message:

"Not able to validate external location because The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden."

I managed to use the same SQL pool to create a regular table, and I can query it.

Here's what I've done so far:

Created the master encryption

Created a database scoped credential with identity = shared access signature & secret

Created an external data source with the location = container that has the Parquet file

Created an external file format with the format type = Parquet

All of these steps ran successfully. However, when I try to execute "CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE [table name]," I get the error message mentioned above.

Could someone please assist me in figuring out what I might be missing or doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi @Clover J

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A platform.

Based on your query, it seems like you have followed all the necessary steps to create an external table in Synapse Analytics. However, the error message you are receiving indicates that there might be an issue with the permissions.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

• Ensure that the SAS token you are using is valid and has the necessary permissions to access the container that has the parquet file. You can regenerate the SAS token and try again.
• Check if the firewall settings of the storage account are configured correctly. You might need to add the IP address of the Synapse Analytics workspace to the firewall rules.
• Verify that the database scoped credential you created has the correct identity and secret. Make sure that the secret is not expired.
• Check if the external data source you created has the correct location and credential. Make sure that the credential has the necessary permissions to access the storage account.

If none of the above steps work, you can try to run the following command to get more information about the error:

SELECT * FROM sys.external_data_sources WHERE name = 'your_external_data_source_name';

This will give you more details about the error and help you troubleshoot the issue.

Reference: Failed with an error: "SQLServerException: Not able to validate external location because the remote server returned an error: (403)".

Hope this helps. Do let us know if you any further queries.

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