Connect to Active Directory Data as a SQL Server Linked Server

SQL Server Linked Servers enable the SQL Server Database Engine to read data from remote data sources and execute commands against the remote database servers outside of the instance of SQL Server. Typically, linked servers are configured to enable the execution of a T-SQL statement that includes tables in another instance of SQL Server, or another database product such as Oracle. When paired with CData Connect AI, linked servers provides instant access to Active Directory data from your SQL Server database. This article demonstrates how to connect to Active Directory using Connect AI and query Active Directory data in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Active Directory, allowing you to query data from Active Directory without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Active Directory, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Active Directory data quickly.

Configure Active Directory Connectivity for SQL Server

Connectivity to Active Directory from SQL Linked Servers is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Active Directory data from SQL Linked Servers, we start by creating and configuring a Active Directory connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Active Directory" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Active Directory.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Active Directory Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Active Directory data from .

Connect to Active Directory from SQL Server using Connect AI

To establish a connection from SQL Server Linked Server to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
2. In the Object Explorer pane, open Server Objects, right-click Linked Servers, and select New Linked Server.
👁 Selecting new linked server

3. The New Linked Server dialogue opens. On the General page, enter the following information:
   • Enter a name for the server in the Linked server field.
   • Select the radio button Other data source and select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 as the provider.
   • In the Data source field, enter tds.cdata.com,14333
   • In the Catalog field, enter enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, ActiveDirectory1).
   👁 Configuring the new linked server
   
4. Select the Security page. At the bottom, select the radio button labeled Be made using this security context and enter the following information:
   • Remote login - enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
   • With password - enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
   👁 Entering credentials
   
5. Click OK to create the server.
Your linked server can now be used to access the data in the data source you specified. If you need to access data from more sources, create another linked server for each one.

Execute Queries

You can now execute queries to the Active Directory linked server from any tool that can connect to SQL Server. An example SQL query would be:

		SELECT * FROM [CDATA CONNECT CLOUD].[ActiveDirectory1].[ActiveDirectory].[User]
	

👁 Querying live data in SQL Server Management Studio (Excel Online is shown)
We have successfully created a linked server that allows us to query Active Directory data.

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