Connect to Cloud SQL for SQL Server from SSMS

This page shows you how to create and connect to a SQL Server instance and perform basic SQL operations by using the Google Cloud console and a client. The resources created in this quickstart typically cost less than a dollar, assuming you complete the steps, including the cleanup, in a timely manner.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.
  2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to project selector

  3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to project selector

  5. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  6. Enable the necessary Google Cloud APIs.

    Console

    In the Google Cloud console, go to the APIs page.

    Go to APIs

    Enable the Cloud SQL Admin API.

    gcloud

    Click the following button to open Cloud Shell, which provides command-line access to your Google Cloud resources directly from the browser. Cloud Shell can be used to run the gcloud commands presented throughout this quickstart.

    Open Cloud Shell

    Run the gcloud services enable command as follows using Cloud Shell to enable the APIs required for this quickstart.:

    gcloud services enable sqladmin.googleapis.com

    This command enables the following APIs:

    • Cloud SQL Admin API

Create a Cloud SQL instance

In this quickstart, you use the Google Cloud console. To use the gcloud CLI, cURL, or PowerShell, see Create instances.

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Instances

  2. Click Create Instance.
  3. Click Choose SQL Server.
  4. Enter myinstance for Instance ID.
  5. Enter a password for the sqlserver user.
  6. Click Create.

    You're returned to the instances list. You can click the new instance right away to see the details, but it won't be available for other operations until it initializes and starts.

Connect to your instance by using SQL Server Management Studio

  1. Optional: If you're running a local instance of SQL Server, stop it before connecting to your Cloud SQL instance. Otherwise, you might encounter errors such as address already in use.
  2. Install the gcloud CLI. The gcloud CLI provides the gcloud CLI to interact with Cloud SQL and other Google Cloud services. The gcloud CLI uses the Admin API to access Cloud SQL, so you must Enable the Admin API before using the gcloud CLI to access Cloud SQL.
  3. In a bash shell command prompt or in Windows PowerShell, run the following command to initialize the gcloud CLI:
      gcloud init
      
  4. Run the following command to authenticate the gcloud CLI:
      gcloud auth login
      
  5. Download and install the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy (see Installing the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy). Note the location of the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy because you will run the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy in next step.
  6. Run the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy by using a bash shell command prompt (or by using Windows PowerShell). Specifically, run the following command, replacing Instance-connection-name with the corresponding value from the Google Cloud console's Overview tab (for your instance):
      ./cloud-sql-proxy INSTANCE_CONNECTION_NAME
      

For more information about installing and using the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy, see About the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy.

As described in the next section, now you can connect to your SQL Server instance by using SSMS and the localhost IP address.

Connect using the SSMS Object Explorer

  1. In SSMS, select Connect Object Explorer from the File menu.

    Selecting the Object Explorer

  2. Enter the following values in the Connection dialog:

    1. For Server Type, enter Database Engine.
    2. For Server Name, enter 127.0.0.1 as the IP address of your SQL Server instance.
    3. For Authentication, enter SQL Server Authentication.
    4. For Login, enter sqlserver.
    5. For Password, enter the password used when the instance was created.
  3. Click the Connect button.

Create a database and upload data

  1. In the SSMS Object Explorer window, right-click the Databases node under your instance and select New Database.

    Selecting New Database

  2. Enter testdb for the Database name and click the OK button.

    Enter database name of testdb in the dialog

  3. Under the newly created testdb database, right-click the Tables node and select New > Table.

    Select New Table

  4. Enter the following values in the Create table dialog:

    1. In the Properties window, for Identity > Name, enter guestbook.
    2. For the first Column Name, enter entryID, set its Data Type to int, and clear the Allow Nulls checkbox.
      1. In the Column Properties window, expand the Identity Specification item and set (Is Identity) to Yes.
    3. For the second Column Name, enter guestname and set its Data Type to varchar(255).
    4. For the third Column Name, enter content and set its Data Type to varchar(255).

    Enter values for a table

  5. Click the File menu and select Save guestbook.

    Save the guestbook table

  6. Right-click the testdb table under Databases and select New Query.

    For testdb, select New Query

  7. Enter the following two INSERT statements into the SQL query text window and click the Execute button.

    INSERT INTO guestbook (guestName, content) values ('first guest', 'I got here!');
    
    INSERT INTO guestbook (guestName, content) values ('second guest', 'Me too!');
    

    As an example: Enter two Insert statements

  8. Expand the Tables item under the Databases > testdb item in the Object Explorer window. Right-click the dbo.guestbook table and choose Select Top 1000 Rows.

    Select the top rows

The two records you inserted are displayed as Results, along with the SQL SELECT statement used to query the records.

View the results of your query

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud SQL Instances page.

    Go to Cloud SQL Instances

  2. Select the myinstance instance to open the Instance details page.
  3. In the icon bar at the top of the page, click Delete.
  4. In the Delete instance window, type your instance's name and then click Delete.

Optional cleanup steps

If you're not using the APIs that were enabled as part of this quickstart, you can disable them.

  • APIs that were enabled within this quickstart:
    • Cloud SQL Admin API
  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the APIs page.

    Go to APIs

  2. Select the Cloud SQL Admin API and then click the Disable API button.

What's next