sys.external_data_sources (Transact-SQL)
Applies to: 
SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
Contains a row for each external data source in the current database for SQL Server, SQL Database, and Azure Synapse Analytics.
Contains a row for each external data source on the server for Analytics Platform System (PDW).
| Column Name | Data Type | Description | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| data_source_id | int | Object ID for the external data source. | |
| name | sysname | Name of the external data source. | |
| location | nvarchar(4000) | The connection string, which includes the protocol, IP address, and port for the external data source. | |
| type_desc | nvarchar(255) | Data source type displayed as a string. | HADOOP, RDBMS, SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, REMOTE_DATA_ARCHIVE, BLOB_STORAGE, NONE |
| type | tinyint | Data source type displayed as a number. | 0 - HADOOP 1 - RDBMS 2 - SHARD_MAP_MANAGER 3 - REMOTE_DATA_ARCHIVE 4 - internal use only 5 - BLOB_STORAGE 6 - NONE |
| resource_manager_location | nvarchar(4000) | For type HADOOP, the IP and port location of the Hadoop Resource Manager. The resource_manager_location is used for submitting a job on a Hadoop data source.NULL for other types of external data sources. |
|
| credential_id | int | The object ID of the database scoped credential used to connect to the external data source. | |
| database_name | sysname | For type RDBMS, the name of the remote database. For type SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, the name of the shard map manager database. NULL for other types of external data sources. | |
| shard_map_name | sysname | For type SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, the name of the shard map. NULL for other types of external data sources. | |
| connection_options | nvarchar(4000) | Applies to: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later. The connection_options will contain the same string from your CONNECTION_OPTIONS parameter from CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE CONNECTION_OPTIONS.In SQL Server 2019 (15.x), this is a semicolon-separated string. In SQL Server 2022 (16.x), this can also be a JSON-formatted string. |
|
| pushdown | nvarchar(256) | Applies to: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later. NOT NULL. Whether pushdown is enabled. For more information, see Pushdown computations in PolyBase. |
ON, OFF |
Permissions
The visibility of the metadata in catalog views is limited to securables that a user either owns or on which the user has been granted some permission. For more information, see Metadata Visibility Configuration.
Remarks
SQL Server support for HDFS Cloudera (CDP) and Hortonworks (HDP) external data sources are retired and not included in SQL Server 2022 (16.x). There's no need to use the CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE ... TYPE argument in SQL Server 2022 (16.x).