SQL Server 2008 R2 Connector for Apache Hadoop CTP Available for Testing

Microsoft is offering a testing release to early adopters that need to bridge the latest version of SQL Server with Apache Hadoop.

The Microsoft SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop is available for download free of charge from the software giant, but only as a Community Technology Preview for the time being.

Testers can grab the SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop CTP right from the Microsoft Download Center and take it out for a spin immediately.

As the official label implies, the SQL Server-Hadoop Connector is designed to support data transfer between SQL Server 2008 R2 and Apache Hadoop. Because the tool is based on Sqoop, it’s designed to play nice with a few databases including MySQL.

“The Microsoft SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop extends JDBC-based Sqoop connectivity to facilitate data transfer between SQL Server and Hadoop, and also supports all the features as mentioned in SQOOP User Guide on the Cloudera website. In addition to this, this connector provides support for nchar and nvarchar data types,” Microsoft explained.

According to the Redmond company, the SQL Server-Hadoop Connector can be used in scenarios in which data is imported from tables in SQL Server to delimited text files on HDFS but also to SequenceFiles files on HDFS and to tables in Hive.

In addition, data can also be transferred from queries executed in SQL Server to delimited text files on HDFS, but also to SequenceFiles files on HDFS and to tables in Hive.

At the same time, the software giant notes that customers leveraging the connector will be able to export data from delimited text files on HDFS , SequenceFiles on HDFS and Hive Tables to tables in SQL Server.


Microsoft SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop is available for download here.