ApsaraDB RDS:Connect to an RDS for SQL Server instance

Connect using DMS

DMS is a web-based database management platform. It requires no client installation and no manual whitelist configuration for the RDS instance itself.

1. Go to the Instances page. Select the region in the top navigation bar, then find the instance and click its ID.

2. Click Log On to Database.

   

3. In the Log on to Database Instance dialog box, configure the login parameters and click Login.

   • Access Mode: Select Account + password login.

   • Database Account and Database Password: Enter your account credentials. This example uses the privileged account testuser.

   • Control Mode: Select Flexible Management for trial use. This mode is free of charge. Stable Change and Security Collaboration modes provide more features but generate fees.

   

4. In the left-side navigation pane of the DMS console, choose Database Instances > Instances Connected to view your databases. In this example, the database dbtest is displayed. Double-click a database to open it.

   If the instance exists but the database is not listed under Instances Connected, check the following: - The login account lacks permissions for that database. Go to the Accounts page of the RDS instance, find the account, and click Change Permissions in the Actions column to grant the required permissions. - The database metadata is not synchronized. Hover over the RDS instance name and click the icon to the right to refresh.

   

5. Run queries and manage data on the SQL Console tab.

Connect using SSMS

SSMS is a GUI client for managing SQL Server databases. It supports connections to RDS instances, on-premises SQL Server instances, and SQL Server instances in other clouds.

Before connecting with SSMS:

• Download the latest version of SSMS to ensure compatibility with all SQL Server versions. See Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

• Apply for a public endpoint and add your on-premises IP address to the whitelist.

This example uses SSMS 19.0.

1. Start SSMS.

2. Choose Connect > Database Engine.

3. In the Connect to Server dialog box, enter the following parameters:

   Parameter	Example value	Description
   Server name	rm-2ze****.rds.aliyuncs.com,1433	The public endpoint and port, separated by a comma (,). See Find your endpoint.
   Authentication	SQL Server Authentication	The authentication method.
   Username	testuser	The RDS account username.
   Password	Test_pw123	The RDS account password.

4. Click Connect.

After a successful connection, the connected instance and its databases appear in the left pane of SSMS.

Connect using Java (JDBC)

Use JDBC to connect a Java application to the RDS instance programmatically.

Add the IP address of the environment where the application runs to the instance's IP address whitelist before connecting. See Configure an IP address whitelist.

Step 1: Add the JDBC driver

Option A: Add the Maven dependency

Add the following to the pom.xml file of your Maven project. Select the version that matches your Java version — for example, mssql-jdbc-12.2.0.jre8.jar works with Java 8 or later. For historical versions, see the official repository.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.microsoft.sqlserver</groupId>
  <artifactId>mssql-jdbc</artifactId>
  <version>12.2.0.jre8</version>
</dependency>

After adding the dependency, click the Maven refresh icon to download it automatically.

Option B: Download the driver manually

1. Download the JDBC driver that matches your Java version from Download Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server.

2. Extract the package and add the JAR file (such as sqljdbc4.jar or sqljdbc.jar) to your project classpath. The following screenshots show how to add the JAR in IntelliJ IDEA.

   

   

   

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;

public class SqlServerConnection {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Replace <endpoint> and <port> with the internal or public endpoint of your RDS instance.
        // Replace <YourDatabaseName> with the target database name.
        String url = "jdbc:sqlserver://<endpoint>:<port>;"
                + "database=<YourDatabaseName>;"
                + "encrypt=true;"
                + "trustServerCertificate=true;"
                + "loginTimeout=30;";

        // Load credentials from environment variables to avoid hardcoding sensitive information.
        String username = System.getenv("RDS_USERNAME");
        String password = System.getenv("RDS_PASSWORD");

        Connection connection = null;

        try {
            // Load the JDBC driver.
            Class.forName("com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver");
            // Establish the connection.
            connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, username, password);
            System.out.println("Connection succeeded!");

            // Execute a sample query. Replace <YourTableName> and column names with actual values.
            Statement statement = connection.createStatement();
            String sql = "SELECT TOP 10 * FROM <YourTableName>";
            ResultSet resultSet = statement.executeQuery(sql);

            while (resultSet.next()) {
                System.out.println("Column 1: " + resultSet.getString("<YourColumnName1>"));
                System.out.println("Column 2: " + resultSet.getString("<YourColumnName2>"));
            }

            resultSet.close();
            statement.close();
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (connection != null) {
                try {
                    connection.close();
                } catch (SQLException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

export RDS_USERNAME=<your-username>
export RDS_PASSWORD=<your-password>

Step 3: Verify the connection

Compile and run SqlServerConnection.java. If the configuration is correct, the output shows:

Connection succeeded!