How access a database on local server sqlexpress

[auribegarcia]

How can I access a database installed on a local (on premise) Sql Server with a SqlExpress instance?

Please indicate if there is a tutorial to do this task.

Thanks a lot

[SkrOYC]

Connect to an on-premises database - AppSheet Help

[auribegarcia]

Thanks for the link, but in that documentation there is a note that says: 

AVAILABILITY NOTICE: Use of DreamFactory to connect securely to an on-premises database is not available to new customer configurations. It will continue to work for existing customer configurations.

However, for new customers an alternative is needed to be able to access databases on local servers and specifically with sqlserver express.

Thanks a lot

[SkrOYC]

About "SQLServer Express" I have no idea.
But what is mentioned in the docs is all we have. You will need to open your database to the world in order to be accessible by a public IP

[auribegarcia]

The problem is that the currently existing alternative to connect to a local server (not in the cloud) apparently depends on a connection through Dreamfactory, but according to the documentation, that company no longer provides that service and I would like to know how else to connect to a database on a local server, because if I try to connect locally using the cloud option, despite having enabled remote connections and open the ports in the firewall, I get the following message: 

Error

Failed to establish connection. Details: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)

[SkrOYC]

AppSheet Support could help

Contact Us - AppSheet Help

[auribegarcia]

Thank you SkrOYC for the information, I had already written to
"Contact Us - AppSheet Help" and I'm waiting for their response

[auribegarcia · Accepted solution]

Many thanks to the AppSheet support team for their valuable: cooperation, help, time spent doing tests for solving this case and for their quick response.

The final answer to this question was:

"As per the updates from our specialist team, we would like to inform you that AppSheet no longer supports adding new "On-Premise database" connections. If you have already configured the On-premise database, it would continue to work, but any new connection won't work. In case you want to use an SQL server, you may try using a cloud hosted server".

I hope that in the future, Google AppSheet can consider including connections to local databases and not just in the cloud, so that customers can have hybrid solutions.

Sincerely

Alejandro Uribe

[guillaume2]

I've been spending way too much time trying to connect AppSheet to a SQL Server hosted by my client. Port 1433 is open, everything should be fine but I can't connect because of something happening AFTER the authentication (as it throws another one if I hit a wrong password): "Unable to obtain the database version number."

Can't find anything in the docs regarding that, I also saw that I can't even use something like DreamFactory.

How will you do without a direct access ?

[auribegarcia]

Well, apparently the new connections to databases in the client's facilities (on-premises databases) are not available in appsheet for now and as I understood, the only possibility to connect to a sql server database is to host it in the cloud.

[SkrOYC]

I thought that with a public IP (and proper config) you may be able to connect. Did you try it?

[auribegarcia]

Well, I did many tests with various configurations, including opening ports in the firewall of Windows and including the list of authorized incoming IP addresses, to allow remote access to the local database with an instance of sqlexpress and I was only able to connect successfully through of Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio (MSSMS) from different remote devices, but remote access with AppSheet did not work. So I consider the response of the Appsheet support team to be good and for now, I will not try to test it anymore unless it is with databases hosted in the cloud.

However, I hope that in the future, Google AppSheet can consider including connections to local databases (on premise) and not just in the cloud, so that customers can have hybrid solutions.

Kind regards,
Alejandro Uribe

[SkrOYC]

But my question is (sorry for bothering about it) do you have a public IP gave to you by your ISP or not?

[auribegarcia]

Thank you very much for the question, because in the tests I did, I used the IP that the router assigns to my computer and set it as fixed and of course, that IP is local and not public, because the Internet provider assigns a single public address to the router and I suppose that if I use that public address, since there are other computers connected to this router, there could be problems locating the server where the database is. I'm going to find out with my internet provider, how to get a public and fixed IP, for when I do other tests.

Kind regards,
Alejandro Uribe