Configure the Microsoft SQL Server data source

This document provides instructions for configuring the Microsoft SQL Server data source and explains available configuration options. For general information on adding and managing data sources, refer to Grafana data sources and Data source management.

Before you begin

Before configuring the Microsoft SQL Server data source, ensure you have the following:

• Grafana permissions: You must have the Organization administrator role to configure data sources. Organization administrators can also configure the data source via YAML with the Grafana provisioning system.

• A running SQL Server instance: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or newer, Azure SQL Database, or Azure SQL Managed Instance.

• Network access: Grafana must be able to reach your SQL Server. The default port is 1433.

• Authentication credentials: Depending on your authentication method, you need one of:

  • SQL Server login credentials (username and password).
  • Windows/Kerberos credentials and configuration (not supported in Grafana Cloud).
  • Azure Entra ID app registration or managed identity.

• Security certificates: If using encrypted connections, gather any necessary TLS/SSL certificates.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} Grafana ships with a built-in Microsoft SQL Server data source plugin. No additional installation is required. {{< /admonition >}}

{{< admonition type="tip" >}} Grafana Cloud users: If your SQL Server is in a private network, you can configure Private data source connect to establish connectivity. {{< /admonition >}}

Add the MSSQL data source

To add the MSSQL data source, complete the following steps:

1. Click Connections in the left-side menu.
2. Click Add new connection
3. Type Microsoft SQL Server in the search bar.
4. Select Microsoft SQL Server under data source.
5. Click Add new data source in the upper right.

Grafana takes you to the Settings tab, where you will set up your Microsoft SQL Server configuration.

Configure the data source in the UI

Following are configuration options for the Microsoft SQL Server data source.

{{< admonition type="warning" >}} Kerberos is not supported in Grafana Cloud. {{< /admonition >}}

Connection:

TLS/SSL Auth:

Encrypt - Determines whether or to which extent a secure SSL TCP/IP connection will be negotiated with the server.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} If you're using an older version of Microsoft SQL Server like 2008 and 2008R2, you may need to disable encryption to be able to connect. {{< /admonition >}}

Authentication:

• Password: SQL Server password | | Windows Authentication (Integrated Security) | Uses the logged-in Windows user's credentials via single sign-on. Available only when SQL Server allows Windows Authentication. | No input required; uses the logged-in Windows user's credentials | | Windows AD (Username/Password) | Authenticates a domain user with their Active Directory username and password. | - Username: [email protected]
• Password: Active Directory password | | Windows AD (Keytab) | Authenticates a domain user using a keytab file. | - Username: [email protected]
• Keytab file path: Path to your keytab file | | Windows AD (Credential Cache) | Uses a Kerberos credential cache already loaded in memory (e.g., from a prior kinit command). No file needed. | - Credential cache path: Path to in-memory credential (e.g., /tmp/krb5cc_1000) | | Windows AD (Credential Cache File) | Authenticates a domain user using a credential cache file (.ccache). | - Username: [email protected]
• Credential cache file path: e.g., /home/grot/cache.json | | Azure Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Authentication | Authenticates the data source using Azure authentication methods. | Details on the supported authentication methods and how to configure them can be found in the Azure authentication section. |

Additional settings:

Additional settings are optional settings you configure for more control over your data source. This includes connection limits, connection timeout, group-by time interval, and Secure Socks Proxy.

Connection limits:

Connection details:

Windows ADS Advanced Settings

Private data source connect - Only for Grafana Cloud users.

Private data source connect, or PDC, allows you to establish a private, secured connection between a Grafana Cloud instance, or stack, and data sources secured within a private network. Click the drop-down to locate the URL for PDC. For more information regarding Grafana PDC refer to Private data source connect (PDC) and Configure Grafana private data source connect (PDC) for instructions on setting up a PDC connection.

Click Manage private data source connect to open your PDC connection page and view your configuration details.

After configuring your MSSQL data source options, click Save & test at the bottom to test the connection. You should see a confirmation dialog box that says:

Database Connection OK

Azure Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Authentication

The following Azure authentication methods are supported:

• Current User authentication
• App Registration
• Managed Identity
• Azure Entra Password

The Azure SQL Server that you are connecting to should support Azure Entra authentication to support adding the App Registration as a user in the database. For configuration details, refer to the Azure SQL documentation.

Current User authentication

This is the recommended authentication mechanism when working with SQL Server instances that are hosted in Azure. It allows users to be authenticated to and query the database using their own credentials rather than long-lived credentials.

This authentication method requires your Grafana instance to be configured with Azure Entra ID (formerly Active Directory) authentication for login. With Azure Entra ID login, this method can be used to forward the currently logged in user’s credentials to the data source. The users credentials will then be used when requesting data from the data source. For details on how to configure your Grafana instance using Azure Entra refer to the documentation.

{{< admonition type="note" >}} Additional configuration is required to ensure that the App Registration used to login a user via Azure provides an access token with the permissions required by the data source.

The App Registration must be configured to issue both Access Tokens and ID Tokens.

1. In the Azure Portal, open the App Registration that requires configuration.
2. Select Authentication in the side menu.
3. Under Implicit grant and hybrid flows check both the Access tokens and ID tokens boxes.
4. Save the changes to ensure the App Registration is updated.

The App Registration must also be configured with additional API Permissions to provide authenticated users with access to the APIs utilised by the data source.

1. In the Azure Portal, open the App Registration that requires configuration.
2. Select API Permissions in the side menu.
3. Ensure the openid, profile, email, and offline_access permissions are present under the Microsoft Graph section. If not, they must be added.
4. Select Add a permission and choose the following permissions. They must be added individually. Refer to the Azure documentation for more information.
   • Select APIs my organization uses > Search for Azure SQL and select it > Delegated permissions > user_impersonation > Add permissions

After all permissions have been added, the Azure authentication section in Grafana must be updated. The scopes section must be updated to include the .default scope to ensure that a token with access to all APIs declared on the App Registration is requested by Grafana. After updated the scopes value should equal: .default openid email profile. {{< /admonition >}}

This method of authentication doesn't inherently support all backend functionality as a user's credentials won't be in scope. Affected functionality includes alerting, reporting, and recorded queries. Also, note that query and resource caching is disabled by default for data sources using current user authentication.

To enable current user authentication for Grafana:

1. Set the user_identity_enabled flag in the [azure] section of the Grafana server configuration.

   iniCopy

   [azure]
   user_identity_enabled = true
   

2. In the SQL Server data source configuration, set Authentication to Azure AD Authentication and the Azure Authentication type to Current User.

App Registration

You must create an app registration and service principal in Azure Entra to authenticate the data source. For configuration details, refer to the Azure documentation for service principals.

After the app registration has been created, make note of the tenant ID, client ID, and client secret. Take the following steps to add the app registration as a SQL user:

1. Connect to your Azure SQL database as a user with administrative permissions (the user used here must have the ability to read your Azure Entra directory e.g. by possessing the Directory Readers role).
2. Run CREATE USER [$IDENTITY_NAME] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER;, substituting IDENTITY_NAME with the app registration name.
3. Grant the created user the appropriate level of permissions for your use-case. It is recommended that users configured for data sources only have reader permissions.

After the appropriate permissions have been granted, configure the SQL Server data source to use the app registration:

1. In the SQL Server data source configuration, set Authentication to Azure AD Authentication and the Azure Authentication type to App Registration.
2. Set the Azure Cloud value to the correct value. If you are using the Azure public cloud this will be Azure.
3. Set the Directory (tenant) ID, Application (client) ID, and Client Secret values to those for your app registration.

Managed Identity

{{< admonition type="note" >}} Managed Identity is available only in Azure Managed Grafana or Grafana OSS/Enterprise when deployed in Azure. It is not available in Grafana Cloud. {{< /admonition >}}

You can use managed identity to configure SQL Server in Grafana if you host Grafana in Azure (such as an App Service or with Azure Virtual Machines) and have managed identity enabled on your VM. This lets you securely authenticate data sources without manually configuring credentials via Azure AD App Registrations. For details on Azure managed identities, refer to the Azure documentation.

To enable managed identity for Grafana:

1. Set the managed_identity_enabled flag in the [azure] section of the Grafana server configuration.

   iniCopy

   [azure]
   managed_identity_enabled = true
   

2. In the SQL Server data source configuration, set Authentication to Azure AD Authentication and the Azure Authentication type to Managed Identity.

   This hides the directory ID, application ID, and client secret fields, and the data source uses managed identity to authenticate to SQL Server.

3. You can set the managed_identity_client_id field in the [azure] section of the Grafana server configuration to allow a user-assigned managed identity to be used instead of the default system-assigned identity.

Ensure that the managed identity used is added to your Azure SQL instance as a user.

Azure Entra Password

{{< admonition type="warning" >}} Azure Entra Password is not a recommended authentication mechanism as it requires configuration using a single users password. Consider an alternative authentication method such as current user authentication or app registration. {{< /admonition >}}

You can connect to an Azure SQL database using the username and password of a user that has permissions in the desired database. This also requires an app registration to be configured with access to the database.

To enable Azure Entra password for Grafana:

1. Set the azure_entra_password_credentials_enabled flag in the [azure] section of the Grafana server configuration.

   iniCopy

   [azure]
   azure_entra_password_credentials_enabled = true
   

2. In the SQL Server data source configuration, set Authentication to Azure AD Authentication and the Azure Authentication type to Azure Entra Password.

3. Set the User ID value to the username of the user in the Azure SQL database.

4. Set the Application Client ID to the client ID of the app registration that has been added to the Azure SQL database

5. Set the Password value to the password of the user in the Azure SQL database.

Min time interval

The Min time interval setting defines a lower limit for the $__interval and [$__interval_ms][add-template-variables-interval_ms] variables.

This value must be formatted as a number followed by a valid time identifier:

Grafana recommends setting this value to match your Microsoft SQL Server write frequency. For example, use 1m if Microsoft SQL Server writes data every minute.

You can also override this setting in a dashboard panel under its data source options.

Database user permissions

When adding a data source, ensure the database user you specify has only SELECT permissions on the relevant database and tables. Grafana does not validate the safety of queries, which means they can include potentially harmful SQL statements, such as USE otherdb; or DROP TABLE user;, which could get executed. To minimize this risk, Grafana strongly recommends creating a dedicated MySQL user with restricted permissions.

CREATE USER grafanareader WITH PASSWORD 'password'
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.YourTable3 TO grafanareader

Also, ensure that the user doesn't have any unwanted privileges from the public role.

Diagnose connection issues

If you use older versions of Microsoft SQL Server, such as 2008 and 2008R2, you might need to disable encryption before you can connect the data source.

Grafana recommends that you use the latest available service pack for optimal compatibility.

Provision the data source

You can define and configure the data source in YAML files as part of the Grafana provisioning system. For more information about provisioning, and for available configuration options, refer to Provision Grafana.

Provisioning example

apiVersion: 1

datasources:
  - name: MSSQL
    type: mssql
    url: localhost:1433
    user: grafana
    jsonData:
      database: grafana
      maxOpenConns: 100
      maxIdleConns: 100
      maxIdleConnsAuto: true
      connMaxLifetime: 14400
      connectionTimeout: 0
      encrypt: 'false'
    secureJsonData:
      password: 'Password!'

Configure with Terraform

You can configure the Microsoft SQL Server data source using Terraform with the Grafana Terraform provider.

For more information about provisioning resources with Terraform, refer to the Grafana as code using Terraform documentation.

Terraform example

The following example creates a basic Microsoft SQL Server data source:

resource "grafana_data_source" "mssql" {
  name = "MSSQL"
  type = "mssql"
  url  = "localhost:1433"
  user = "grafana"

  json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    database           = "grafana"
    maxOpenConns       = 100
    maxIdleConns       = 100
    maxIdleConnsAuto   = true
    connMaxLifetime    = 14400
    connectionTimeout  = 0
    encrypt            = "false"
  })

  secure_json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    password = "Password!"
  })
}

For all available configuration options, refer to the Grafana provider data source resource documentation.

Next steps

After configuring your Microsoft SQL Server data source, you can:

• Write queries using the query editor to explore and visualize your data
• Create template variables to build dynamic, reusable dashboards
• Add annotations to overlay SQL Server events on your graphs
• Set up alerting to create alert rules based on your SQL Server data
• Troubleshoot issues if you encounter problems with your data source