Azure AD authentication support for Azure SQL on VM

Question

Is there any support for Azure AD - Service Principals / Users / Groups to authenticate to "Azure SQL on VM" hosted database? Currently looking to port from Azure SQL Managed Instance and are hoping we can re-use our application identity authentication library for JWT based db authentication (Service Principals with Certificate Authentication to AAD) and not need to fall back to AD domain accounts.

Answer 1

Hey folks! Great news. SQL Server 2022 and SQL Server 2022 on Azure VMs both now support authentication with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory). More details can be found in the following articles:

• SQL Server: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/security/authentication-access/azure-ad-authentication-sql-server-setup-tutorial?view=sql-server-ver16
• SQL VM: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/virtual-machines/windows/configure-azure-ad-authentication-for-sql-vm?view=azuresql&tabs=azure-portal

@Chad Bentz The Azure Ideas forum is where UserVoice has been migrated to, you can request features and report issues there. The ideas are monitored and reviewed regularly by SQL PMs! https://feedback.azure.com/d365community/forum/04fe6ee0-3b25-ec11-b6e6-000d3a4f0da0

Answer 2

@Chad-4001 Thank you for reaching out.

Unfortunately, your existing service principals will not work with SQL Server installed on a VM.

Connecting to SQL Server running on an Azure VM is not supported using an Azure Active Directory account. You will need to use an Active Directory domain account instead.

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