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Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions overview

  • Article

This set of articles explains how to work with Azure SQL bindings in Azure Functions. Azure Functions supports input bindings, output bindings, and a function trigger for the Azure SQL and SQL Server products.

Action Type
Trigger a function when a change is detected on a SQL table SQL trigger
Read data from a database Input binding
Save data to a database Output binding

Install extension

The extension NuGet package you install depends on the C# mode you're using in your function app:

Functions execute in an isolated C# worker process. To learn more, see Guide for running C# Azure Functions in an isolated worker process.

Add the extension to your project by installing this NuGet package.

dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Sql

To use a preview version of the Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Sql package, add the --prerelease flag to the command. You can view preview functionality on the Azure Functions SQL Extensions release page.

dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Extensions.Sql --prerelease

Note

Breaking changes between preview releases of the Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions requires that all Functions targeting the same database use the same version of the SQL extension package.

Install bundle

The SQL bindings extension is part of the v4 extension bundle, which is specified in your host.json project file.

The extension bundle is specified by the following code in your host.json file:

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "extensionBundle": {
    "id": "Microsoft.Azure.Functions.ExtensionBundle",
    "version": "[4.*, 5.0.0)"
  }
}

Functions runtime

Install bundle

The SQL bindings extension is part of the v4 extension bundle, which is specified in your host.json project file.

The extension bundle is specified by the following code in your host.json file:

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "extensionBundle": {
    "id": "Microsoft.Azure.Functions.ExtensionBundle",
    "version": "[4.*, 5.0.0)"
  }
}

Install bundle

The SQL bindings extension is part of the v4 extension bundle, which is specified in your host.json project file.

The extension bundle is specified by the following code in your host.json file:

{
  "version": "2.0",
  "extensionBundle": {
    "id": "Microsoft.Azure.Functions.ExtensionBundle",
    "version": "[4.*, 5.0.0)"
  }
}

Update packages

Add the Java library for SQL bindings to your functions project with an update to the pom.xml file in your Java Azure Functions project as seen in the following snippet:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.microsoft.azure.functions</groupId>
    <artifactId>azure-functions-java-library-sql</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.0</version>
</dependency>

You can use the preview extension bundle with an update to the pom.xml file in your Java Azure Functions project as seen in the following snippet:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.microsoft.azure.functions</groupId>
    <artifactId>azure-functions-java-library-sql</artifactId>
    <version>2.1.0-preview</version>
</dependency>

SQL connection string

Important

It is strongly recommended that managed identities are used for accessing an Azure SQL Database with Azure Functions. Managed identities make your app more secure by eliminating secrets from your application deployments, such as credentials in the connection strings, server names, and ports being used. You can learn how to use managed identities in this tutorial, Connect a function app to Azure SQL with managed identity and SQL bindings.

Azure SQL bindings for Azure Functions have a required property for the connection string on all bindings and triggers. These pass the connection string to the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient library and supports the connection string as defined in the SqlClient ConnectionString documentation. Notable keywords include:

  • Authentication allows a function to connect to Azure SQL with Microsoft Entra ID, including Active Directory Managed Identity
  • Command Timeout allows a function to wait for specified amount of time in seconds before terminating a query (default 30 seconds)
  • ConnectRetryCount allows a function to automatically make additional reconnection attempts, especially applicable to Azure SQL Database serverless tier (default 1)
  • Pooling allows a function to reuse connections to the database, which can improve performance (default true). Additional settings for connection pooling include Connection Lifetime, Max Pool Size, and Min Pool Size. Learn more about connection pooling in the ADO.NET documentation

Considerations

  • Azure SQL binding supports version 4.x and later of the Functions runtime.
  • Source code for the Azure SQL bindings can be found in this GitHub repository.
  • This binding requires connectivity to an Azure SQL or SQL Server database.
  • Output bindings against tables with columns of data types NTEXT, TEXT, or IMAGE aren't supported and data upserts will fail. These types will be removed in a future version of SQL Server and aren't compatible with the OPENJSON function used by this Azure Functions binding.
  • Use managed identities instead of usernames and passwords.
  • Concider using an Azure Key Value to store application settings.

Samples

In addition to the samples for C#, Java, JavaScript, PowerShell, and Python available in the Azure SQL bindings GitHub repository, more are available in Azure Samples:

Next steps