MS SQL Server

Use MS SQL Server when you want Budibase to connect to an existing Microsoft SQL Server database.

Budibase supports SQL Server 2016 and later.

Connect the datasource

Open the Data tables link.
Add a new source.
Choose MS SQL Server.
Enter the connection details.
Fetch the tables you want to use.

Connection details

You will usually need:

Server host
Port
Database name
Username
Password
Encryption or certificate settings, if your server requires them

For hosted databases, copy these values from your database provider. For self-hosted databases, make sure SQL Server accepts remote connections from Budibase.

If Budibase Cloud is connecting to your database, allow the Budibase IP addresses through your database firewall. See Whitelisting.

If Budibase is running in Docker and the database is on the same machine, localhost points to the Budibase container, not your host machine. Use host.docker.internal, or 172.17.0.1 on Linux.

Temporal tables

Budibase supports system-versioned temporal tables. It imports the main table, excludes history tables from fetch, and marks system-managed period columns as auto-columns.

Fetch tables

Fetch only the tables you need. You can fetch additional tables later if the schema changes.

Define relationships

Add relationships after you fetch the tables.

Use one-to-many relationships for foreign keys and many-to-many relationships when your schema includes a join table.

Custom queries

Use custom queries for joins, grouped results, or write actions from a form or button.

See Working with SQL datasources for the shared workflow after the connection is in place.

Troubleshooting

If Budibase cannot connect:

Confirm the database is reachable from the Budibase server or Budibase Cloud
Check that the host and port are correct
Confirm the user has permission to connect to the database and read the tables you want to fetch
Check whether encryption or certificate settings are required
Check firewall and allowlist rules