# Stash Latest (2.9) : Connecting Stash to SQL Server

Added by pwatson , edited by tbomfim on Sep 19, 2013

This page describes how to connect Stash to a Microsoft SQL Server database.

The overall process for using a SQL Server database with Stash is:

- Install SQL Server where it is accessible to Stash.
- Create a database and user on the SQL Server server for Stash to use.
- Install Stash on Windows, or on Linux or Mac.
- Either:
  - at Stash install time, run the Setup Wizard to connect Stash to the SQL Server database, or
  - at a later time, migrate Stash to the SQL Server database.

It is assumed here that you already have SQL Server installed and running.

- SQL Server documentation is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb545450.aspx.
- JDBC documentation is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms378672.aspx.

See Supported platforms for the versions of SQL Server supported by Stash.

On this page:

Related pages:

- Transitioning from jTDS to Microsoft's JDBC driver
- Connecting Stash to an external database
- Connecting Stash to MySQL
- Connecting Stash to Oracle
- Connecting Stash to PostgreSQL

## Prerequisites

#### Back up your current database

If you are migrating your data from the internal Stash database, back up the Stash home directory.

If you are migrating your Stash data from a different external database, back up that database by following the instructions provided by the database vendor before proceeding with these instructions.

See Data recovery and backups.

#### Create the SQL Server database

Before you can use Stash with SQL Server, you must set up SQL Server as follows:

Step | Notes
Create a database | e.g. `stash`. Remember this database name for the connection step below.
Set the collation type | This should be case-sensitive, for example, 'SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS' (CS = Case Sensitive).
Set the isolation level | Configure the database to use the isolation level, Read Committed with Row Versioning.
Create a database user | e.g. `stashuser`. This database user should not be the database owner, but should be in the `db_owner` role. See SQL Server Startup Errors. Remember this database user name for the connection step below.
Set database user permissions | The Stash database user has permission to connect to the database, and to create and drop tables, indexes and other constraints, and insert and delete data, in the newly-created database.
Enable TCP/IP | Ensure that TCP/IP is enabled on SQL Server and that SQL Server is listening on the correct port (which is 1433 for a default SQL Server installation). Remember this port number for the connection step below.
Check the authentication mode | Ensure that SQL Server is operating in the appropriate authentication mode. By default, SQL Server operates in 'Windows Authentication Mode'. However, if your user is not associated with a trusted SQL connection, 'Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 18452' is received during Stash startup, and you will need to change the authentication mode to 'Mixed Authentication Mode'. Stash instances running on Windows are also able to support SQL Server databases running in 'Windows Authentication Mode'. This is described at the bottom of this page and it has to be manually configured: Connecting Stash to SQL Server - Use Integrated Authentication (Optional)
Check that SET NOCOUNT is off | Ensure that the SET NOCOUNT option is turned off. You can do that in SQL Server Management Studio as follows: Navigate to Tools > Options > Query Execution > SQL Server > Advanced. Ensure that the SET NOCOUNT option is cleared. Now, go to the Server > Properties > Connections > Default Connections properties box and clear the no count option.

Note that Stash will generally require about 25–30 connections to the database.

Here is an example of how to create and configure the SQL Server database from the command line. When Stash and SQL Server run on the same physical computer (accessible through `localhost`), run the following commands (replacing `stashuser` and `password` with your own values):

    SQL Server> CREATE DATABASE stash
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> USE stash
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> ALTER DATABASE stash SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> ALTER DATABASE stash SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> ALTER DATABASE stash COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> SET NOCOUNT OFF
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> USE master
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> CREATE LOGIN stashuser WITH PASSWORD=N'password', DEFAULT_DATABASE=stash, CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF, CHECK_POLICY=OFF
    SQL Server> GO
    SQL Server> ALTER AUTHORIZATION ON DATABASE::stash TO stashuser
    SQL Server> GO

This creates an empty SQL Server database with the name `stash`, and a user that can log in from the host that Stash is running on who has full access to the newly created database. In particular, the user should be allowed to create and drop tables, indexes and other constraints.

## Connect Stash to the SQL Server database

You can now connect Stash to the SQL Server database, either:

- when you run the Setup Wizard, at install time,
- when you wish to migrate to SQL Server, either from the embedded database or from another external database.

#### When running the Setup Wizard at install time

1. Select External at the 'Database' step.
2. Select SQL Server for Database Type.
3. Complete the form. See the table below for details.
4. Click Next, and follow the instructions in the Stash Setup Wizard.

#### When migrating to SQL Server

1. In the Stash administration area, click Database (under 'Settings').
2. Click Migrate database.
3. Select SQL Server for Database Type.
4. Complete the form. See the table below for details.
5. Click Start Migration.

Hostname | The host name or IP address of the computer running the database server.
Port | The TCP port with which Stash can connect to the database server. The default value of 1433 is the default port that SQL Server runs against. You can change that if you know the port that your SQL Server instance is using.
Database name | The name of the database that Stash should connect to.
Database username | The username that Stash should use to access the database.
Database password | The password that Stash should use to access the database.

## Use Integrated Authentication or 'Windows Authentication Mode' (Optional)

Windows authentication is only available for Stash instances running on Windows. It cannot be used on Linux because Microsoft does not provide shared objects for it. You will either need to run Stash on Windows, allowing you to use Windows security, or you will need to enable mixed-mode authentication for SQL Server if you are running Stash on Linux. Unfortunately, there are no other options at this time.

Integrated authentication uses a native DLL to access the credentials of the logged-in user to authenticate with SQL Server. The native DLLs for both 32- and 64-bit systems are included in the distribution; there is no need to download the entire package from Microsoft.

Stash does not currently support configuring the system to use integrated authentication from the UI (Vote for it! STASH-3035 - Add support for integrated authentication for Microsoft SQL Server ( Open) ). This means you can't currently migrate to SQL Server with integrated authentication, nor can you configure Stash to use SQL Server with integrated authentication during initial setup. However, if Stash has already been configured to use SQL Server (for example, when the Setup Wizard was run at first use), you can enable integrated authentication by directly modifying Stash's configuration, as follows:

1. Based on the JVM being used to run Stash, rename either the `x64` or `x86` DLL to `sqljdbc_auth.dll` in `lib/native`. Note that running on Windows x64 does not require the use of the `x64` DLL; you should only use the `x64` DLL if you are also using a 64-bit JVM.
2. In `setenv.bat`, a `JVM_LIBRARY_PATH` variable has already been defined. Simply remove the leading `rem` . Note that if you are putting the native DLL in an alternative location, you may need to change the value to point to your own path. The value of the `JVM_LIBRARY_PATH` variable will automatically be included in the command line when Tomcat is run using `start-stash.bat`.
3. Edit the `%STASH_HOME%\stash-config.properties` file to include `;integratedSecurity=true` in the `jdbc.url` line. Note that `jdbc.user` and `jdbc.password` will no longer be used to supply credentials but they must still be defined – Stash will to fail to start if these properties are removed.
4. Ensure the Stash process or service is running as the correct user to access SQL Server.

Icon

It is also possible to configure integrated authentication over Kerberos, rather than using the native DLLs. Details for that are included in the JDBC documentation.

## Install the JDBC driver

This section is only relevant to some distributions of Stash, for example if you are running Stash via the Atlassian Plugin SDK, or have built Stash from source.

If the SQL Server JDBC driver is not bundled with Stash, you will need to download and install the driver yourself.

1. Download the appropriate JDBC driver from the Microsoft download site.
2. Install the driver file to your``<Stash home directory>```/lib` directory (for Stash 2.1 or later).
3. Stop, then restart, Stash on Windows, or on Linux and Mac.

If Stash was configured to use Microsoft SQL Server by manually entering a JDBC URL, please refer to this guide.

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