How to Connect to Serverless SQL Pool Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) | Azure Synapse Analytics Tutorial

🔌 How to Connect to Serverless SQL Pool Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers a built-in serverless SQL pool that lets you run T-SQL queries on files stored in Azure Data Lake. You can conveniently connect to this pool using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for executing queries, browsing metadata, and managing your scripts.

✅ Prerequisites

• Installed SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) – version 18.5 or later is recommended
• Access to an Azure Synapse workspace
• Azure Active Directory credentials (SSMS connects via AAD authentication)

🔑 Connection Information

To connect from SSMS, you'll need the following:

• Server name: <synapse-workspace-name>.sql.azuresynapse.net
• Authentication: Azure Active Directory - Universal with MFA

🛠️ Steps to Connect

1. Open SSMS
2. Click Connect → Database Engine
3. Enter the Server name (e.g., myworkspace.sql.azuresynapse.net)
4. Select Authentication: Azure Active Directory - Universal with MFA
5. Click Connect and complete the AAD login

📌 Tips

• Use master or <your-database> to run queries
• Execute views and external table queries as you would in Synapse Studio
• Cannot run DDL to create dedicated SQL pools or Spark objects

📺 Watch the Tutorial

Credit: This blog post was prepared with the help of ChatGPT and Gemini.