SQL Server Integration Reference Guide

Learn about how the SQL Server integration works and what Immuta does in your environment to register your data and keep it in sync

Immuta policies will not be automatically enforced in SQL Server

While you can author and apply subscription and data policies on SQL Server data sources within Immuta, these policies will not be enforced natively in the SQL Server platform.

To use this integration, contact your Immuta representative.

The SQL Server integration allows you to register data from SQL Server in Immuta. Immuta supports SQL Server deployed through Azure, through Amazon RDS, or self-hosted. See the Register a SQL Server Connection page for a list of supported versions.

What does Immuta do in my environment?

Registering a connection

SQL Server is configured and data is registered through connections, an Immuta feature that allows you to register your data objects through a single connection to make data registration more scalable for your organization. Instead of registering schema and databases individually, you can register them all at once and allow Immuta to monitor your data platform for changes so that data sources are added and removed automatically to reflect the state of data in your data platform.

When the connection is registered, Immuta ingests and stores connection metadata in the Immuta metadata database. In the example below, the Immuta application administrator connects the database that contains marketing-data, research-data, and cs-data tables. Immuta registers these tables as data sources and stores the table metadata in the Immuta metadata database.

Immuta presents a hierarchical view of your data that reflects the hierarchy of objects in SQL Server after registration is complete:

• Host

• Database

• Schema

• Table

Beyond making the registration of your data more intuitive, connections provides more control. Instead of performing operations on individual schemas or tables, you can perform operations (such as object sync) at the connection level.

See the Connections reference guide for details about connections and how to manage them. To configure your SQL Server integration and register data, see the Register a SQL Server connection guide.

Required SQL Server privileges

The privileges that the SQL Server integration requires align to the least privilege security principle. The table below describes each privilege required by the setup user and the IMMUTA_SYSTEM_ACCOUNT user.

SQL Server privilege	User requiring the privilege	Explanation
Azure SQL Server CREATE DATABASE permission ALTER ANY USER permission on the database SQL Server on Amazon RDS master user	Setup user	This privilege allows the user registering the connection to create the Immuta database and the Immuta system account so that Immuta can register and manage the connection.
ALTER ANY DATABASE or the VIEW ANY DATABASE server-level permission, or CREATE DATABASE permission in the master database	Immuta system account	This privilege provides access to all the SQL Server system tables necessary to register the connection and maintain state between the SQL Server database and Immuta.

Maintaining state with SQL Server

User actions spur processes in the integration so that Immuta data remains synchronous with the data in SQL Server.

Immuta will create a data source by registering data source metadata and storing that metadata in the Immuta metadata database when an object is found in SQL Server.

Supported object types

While you can author and apply subscription and data policies on SQL Server data sources in Immuta, these policies will not be enforced natively in the SQL Server platform. Any GRANTs or data policies must be manually created in SQL Server.

Object type	Subscription policy support	Data policy support	Request app support
Table	❌	❌	✅
View	❌	❌	✅

Security and compliance

Authentication methods

The SQL Server integration supports the following authentication methods to register a connection. The credentials provided must be for an account with the permissions listed in the Register a SQL Server connection guide:

• Username and password

• Azure AD token

Limitations and known issues

The following Immuta features are unsupported:

• Automatic subscription and data policy enforcement in SQL Server. Any GRANTs or data policies must be manually created in SQL Server.

• Query audit

• Data objects deleted in the native platform will not have their corresponding Immuta data objects automatically deleted. Delete the objects manually when necessary.

• Integrated Security is not supported