Installing driver for Squirrel sql client on linux to connect to MS sql server

Question

I am trying to connect to MS SQL server database from linux. I can connect with Microsoft SQL server management studio on windows to same. I am trying to use squirrel sql client. I am not sure about the driver I need to use and how to install it.

Solution 1

You want to get the JDBC driver from Microsoft and add it to the Squirrel classpath.

• Download the driver from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11774
• Get the .tar.gz for the 4.0 driver or 4.1 preview.
• Expand the .tar.gz file on your Linux system.
• Open Squirrel SQL
• Click the Drivers tab in the upper left and find the entry for Microsoft MSSQL Server JDBC Driver
• Double click the entry to open the settings for it
• Click the Extra Class Path button
• Click the Add button and select the sqljdbc4.jar or sqljdbc41.jar extracted above
• In the Class Name field, enter com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver

Edit: adding JDBC URL example - The JDBC URL syntax for the Microsoft driver is explained here.

The general form of the connection URL is

jdbc:sqlserver://[serverName[\instanceName][:portNumber]][;property=value[;property=value]]

Solution 2

its a lot easier to just drop the driver jar into the squirrel lib folder. squirrel will find it and use it.

Comments

[mrk m]

Thanks for your answer. Now when I am tryig to connect to MS SQL server I am getting sql exception that URL is invalid. The URL is jdbc:microsoft:mssql://myserver.mydomain.com:1433 The server to which I am trying to connect needs odbc driver. I will need different(odbc) driver I think. Is that jTDS MSSQL driver ?

[aqn]

mrk m: I still can't add a MSSQL deriver to my SQuirrelSQL, but WRT to your issue, I think the URL needs to say jdbc:sqlserver://<server_name>:1433;databaseName=<db_name> ?

[Eric Hedstrom]

Yes, for example jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=AdventureWorks; . You can also add user=myUsername;password=myPassword; to include your authentication info.

[Chisko]

Thank you! I spent almost a day in the docs trying to figure this out. Their documentation surely sucks.