This document is applicable only to high-availability instances of RDS for SQL Server 2012 and later versions.

Currently, linked server creation has the following constraints:

  • You cannot create a linked server on the RDS console.
  • Creating a linked server with a series of storage procedures is complex.
  • You cannot create a linked server using DNS and the corresponding IP address.

Despite the constraints, this document provides a simple method of creating a linked server. 

DECLARE
        @linked_server_name sysname = N'my_link_server',
        @data_source sysname = N'***********',   --style: 10.1.10.1,1433
        @user_name sysname = N'****' ,
        @password nvarchar(128) = N'**********',
        @link_server_options xml
        = N'
            <rds_linked_server>
                <config option="data access">true</config>
                <config option="rpc">true</config>
                <config option="rpc out">true</config>
            </rds_linked_server>
        '
        EXEC sp_rds_add_linked_server
            @linked_server_name,
            @data_source,
            @user_name,
            @password,
            @link_server_options

The following message create successfully is displayed after the linked server is successfully created.

Click the Messages tab shown in the preceding figure, and the following information is displayed. 

The linked server 'my_link_server' has set option 'data access' to 'true'.
The linked server 'my_link_server' has set option 'rpc’ to 'true'.
The linked server 'my_link_server' has set option 'rpc out' to 'true'.
create link server 'my_link_server' successfully.