Note that you are viewing Looker documentation. For Looker Studio documentation, visit https://support.google.com/looker-studio.

Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL)

Encrypting network traffic

It is a best practice to encrypt network traffic between the Looker application and your database. Consider one of the options described on the Enabling secure database access documentation page.

If you're interested in using SSL encryption, see the Microsoft documentation.

Configuring server authentication

Looker requires "SQL Server Authentication" on your MSSQL server. If your MSSQL server is configured as "Windows Integrated Authentication" only, change the server configuration to "Windows Integrated Authentication and SQL Server Authentication."

If the server configuration is not set properly, Looker will be unable to connect. This will appear in your SQL Server log messages like: "An attempt to log in using SQL authentication failed. Server is configured for windows authentication only."

If this change is required, you can complete the following steps:

In SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer, right-click the server, and then click Properties.
On the Security page, under Server authentication, select the new server authentication mode, and then click OK.
In the SQL Server Management Studio dialog, click OK to acknowledge the requirement to restart SQL Server.
In Object Explorer, right-click your server, and then click Restart. If SQL Server Agent is running, it must also be restarted.

You can read about this more in Microsoft's documentation.

Creating a Looker user

Looker authenticates to your database using SQL Server Authentication. Using a domain account is not supported.

To create an account, run the following commands. Change some_password_here to a unique, secure password:

CREATE LOGIN looker
  WITH PASSWORD = 'some_password_here';
USE MyDatabase;
CREATE USER looker FOR LOGIN looker;
GO

Granting the Looker user permission to SELECT from tables

Looker requires the SELECT permission for each table or schema that you will want to query. There are multiple ways to assign SELECT permission:

To grant SELECT permission to individual schemas, run the following command for each schema:
```
GRANT SELECT on SCHEMA :: 'schema_name' to looker;
```
To grant SELECT permission to individual tables, run the following command for each table:
```
GRANT SELECT on OBJECT :: 'schema_name'.'table_name' to looker;
```
For MSSQL version 2012 or later, you can alternatively assign the Looker user the db_datareader role using these commands:
```
USE MyDatabase;
ALTER ROLE db_datareader ADD MEMBER looker;
GO
```

Granting the Looker user permission to view and stop running queries

Looker must be authorized to detect and stop running queries, which requires the following permissions:

ALTER ANY CONNECTION
VIEW SERVER STATE

To grant these permissions, run the following commands:

USE Master;
GRANT ALTER ANY CONNECTION TO looker;
GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE to looker;
GO

Granting the Looker user permission to create tables

To give the Looker user the permission to create PDTs, run the following commands:

USE MyDatabase;
GRANT CREATE TABLE to looker;
GO

Temp schema setup

To create a schema that is owned by the Looker user and grant the necessary rights to the Looker user, run this command:

CREATE SCHEMA looker_scratch AUTHORIZATION looker;

Configuring Kerberos authentication

If you use Kerberos authentication with your MSSQL database, follow the steps to configure Looker to connect by using Kerberos, as described in the following section.

Setting up the Kerberos client configuration

First, you need to ensure the installation of several pieces of software and the presence of several files on the Looker machine.

Kerberos client

Verify that the Kerberos client is installed on the Looker machine by running kinit. If the Kerberos client is not installed, install the Kerberos client's binaries.

For example, on Redhat or CentOS, this would be the following:

sudo yum install krb5-workstation krb5-libs krb5-auth-dialog

Java 8

Java 8 must be installed on the Looker machine and in the PATH and JAVA_HOME of the Looker user. If necessary, install it locally in the looker directory.

Java Cryptography Extension

Download and install the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) for Java 8 from this Oracle download page.
- Locate the jre/lib/security directory for the Java installation.
- Remove the following JAR files from this directory: local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar.
- Replace these two files with the JAR files included in the JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files download.
It may be possible to use versions of Java prior to Java 8 with the JCE installed, but this is not recommended.
Update JAVA_HOME and PATH in ~looker/.bash_profile to point to the correct installation of Java and source ~/.bash_profile or log out and in again.
Verify the Java version with java -version.
Verify the JAVA_HOME environment variable with echo $JAVA_HOME.

`gss-jaas.conf`

Create a gss-jaas.conf file in the looker directory with these contents:

com.sun.security.jgss.initiate {
    com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
    useTicketCache=true
    doNotPrompt=true;
};

If necessary for testing, debug=true can be added to this file like this:

com.sun.security.jgss.initiate {
    com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required
    useTicketCache=true
    doNotPrompt=true
    debug=true;
};

`krb5.conf`

The server that is running Looker should also have a valid krb5.conf file. By default, this file is in /etc/krb5.conf. If it is in another location, that must be indicated in the environment (KRB5_CONFIG in the shell environment).

You may need to copy this from another Kerberos client machine.

`lookerstart.cfg`

Point to the gss-jaas.conf and krb5.conf files by making a file in the looker directory (the same directory that contains the looker startup script) called lookerstart.cfg that contains the following lines:

  JAVAARGS="-Djava.security.auth.login.config=/path/to/gss-jaas.conf -Djavax.security.auth.useSubjectCredsOnly=false -Djava.security.krb5.conf=/etc/krb5.conf"
  LOOKERARGS=""

If the krb5.conf file is not at /etc/krb5.conf then it will also be necessary to add this variable:

  -Djava.security.krb5.conf=/path/to/krb5.conf

For debugging, add these variables:

  -Dsun.security.jgss.debug=true -Dsun.security.krb5.debug=true

Then restart Looker with ./looker restart.

Authenticating with Kerberos

User authentication

If krb5.conf is not in /etc/, then use the environment variable KRB5_CONFIG to indicate its location.
Run the command klist to make sure there is a valid ticket in the Kerberos ticket cache.
If there is no ticket, run kinit username@REALM or kinit username to create the ticket.
The account that is used with Looker will likely be headless, so you can get a keytab file from Kerberos to store the credential for long-term use. Use a command like kinit -k -t looker_user.keytab username@REALM to get the Kerberos ticket.

Automatically renewing the ticket

Set up a cron job that runs every so often to keep an active ticket in the Kerberos ticket cache. How often this should run depends on the configuration of the cluster. klist should give an indication of how soon tickets expire.

Creating the Looker connection to your database

Follow these steps to create the connection from Looker to your database:

In the Admin section of Looker, select Connections, and then click Add Connection.
From the Dialect drop-down menu, select your version of Microsoft SQL Server.

Note: If you are on a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance and you don't see your dialect listed in the Dialect drop-down menu, see the Looker (Google Cloud core) documentation to verify that the dialect is supported for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances.
For Remote Host and Port, enter the hostname and port (the default port is 1433).

If you need to specify a non-default port other than 1433 and your database requires the use of a comma instead of a colon, you can add useCommaHostPortSeparator=true in the Additional JDBC parameters field further down in the connection settings, which will allow you to use a comma for Remote Host:Port. For example:

jdbc:sqlserver://hostname,1434
Fill out the rest of the connection details. The majority of the settings are common to most database dialects. See the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page for information.
To verify that the connection is successful, click Test. See the Testing database connectivity documentation page for troubleshooting information.
To save these settings, click Connect.

Configuring the Looker connection

Follow the instructions on the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page to create a connection to your MSSQL database. In the Additional JDBC parameters section of the Connection Settings page, add the following:

;integratedSecurity=true;authenticationScheme=JavaKerberos

Some networks are configured for two Kerberos realms, one for Windows Active Directory and the other for Linux and other non-Windows systems. In that case, when the Linux-focused Realm and the Active Directory Realm are configured to trust each other, it is called "cross-realm authentication".

If your network uses cross-realm authentication, you must explicitly specify the Kerberos principal for MSSQL Server. In the Additional JDBC parameters field, add the following:

;serverSpn=service_name/FQDN\:PORT@REALM

Replacing FQDN and PORT@REALM with your network information. For example:

;serverSpn=MSSQLSvc/dbserver.internal.example.com:1433@AD.EXAMPLE.COM

In addition, the Connection Settings page in Looker requires entries in the Username and Password fields, but these are not required for Kerberos. Enter dummy values in these fields.

Test the connection to make sure that it is configured correctly.

Feature support

For Looker to support some features, your database dialect must also support them.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008+ supports the following features as of Looker 24.18:

Feature	Supported?
Support Level	Integration
Looker (Google Cloud core)	No
Symmetric Aggregates	Yes
Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent SQL Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent Native Derived Tables	Yes
Stable Views	Yes
Query Killing	Yes
SQL-based Pivots	Yes
Timezones	No
SSL	Yes
Subtotals	Yes
JDBC Additional Params	Yes
Case Sensitive	No
Location Type	Yes
List Type	No
Percentile	No
Distinct Percentile	No
SQL Runner Show Processes	Yes
SQL Runner Describe Table	Yes
SQL Runner Show Indexes	Yes
SQL Runner Select 10	Yes
SQL Runner Count	Yes
SQL Explain	No
Oauth Credentials	No
Context Comments	Yes
Connection Pooling	No
HLL Sketches	No
Aggregate Awareness	Yes
Incremental PDTs	No
Milliseconds	Yes
Microseconds	Yes
Materialized Views	No
Approximate Count Distinct	No

Microsoft SQL Server 2016 supports the following features as of Looker 24.18:

Feature	Supported?
Support Level	Supported
Looker (Google Cloud core)	No
Symmetric Aggregates	Yes
Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent SQL Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent Native Derived Tables	Yes
Stable Views	Yes
Query Killing	Yes
SQL-based Pivots	Yes
Timezones	Yes
SSL	Yes
Subtotals	Yes
JDBC Additional Params	Yes
Case Sensitive	No
Location Type	Yes
List Type	No
Percentile	No
Distinct Percentile	No
SQL Runner Show Processes	Yes
SQL Runner Describe Table	Yes
SQL Runner Show Indexes	Yes
SQL Runner Select 10	Yes
SQL Runner Count	Yes
SQL Explain	No
Oauth Credentials	No
Context Comments	Yes
Connection Pooling	No
HLL Sketches	No
Aggregate Awareness	Yes
Incremental PDTs	No
Milliseconds	Yes
Microseconds	Yes
Materialized Views	No
Approximate Count Distinct	No

Microsoft SQL Server 2017+ supports the following features as of Looker 24.18:

Feature	Supported?
Support Level	Supported
Looker (Google Cloud core)	Yes
Symmetric Aggregates	Yes
Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent SQL Derived Tables	Yes
Persistent Native Derived Tables	Yes
Stable Views	Yes
Query Killing	Yes
SQL-based Pivots	Yes
Timezones	Yes
SSL	Yes
Subtotals	Yes
JDBC Additional Params	Yes
Case Sensitive	No
Location Type	Yes
List Type	No
Percentile	No
Distinct Percentile	No
SQL Runner Show Processes	Yes
SQL Runner Describe Table	Yes
SQL Runner Show Indexes	Yes
SQL Runner Select 10	Yes
SQL Runner Count	Yes
SQL Explain	No
Oauth Credentials	No
Context Comments	Yes
Connection Pooling	No
HLL Sketches	No
Aggregate Awareness	Yes
Incremental PDTs	No
Milliseconds	Yes
Microseconds	Yes
Materialized Views	No
Approximate Count Distinct	No