Trying to query Azure SQL Database with Azure ML / Docker Image - sql-server

Question

I wanted to do a realtime deployment of my model on azure, so I plan to create an image which firsts queries an ID in azure SQL db to get the required features, then predicts using my model and returns the predictions. The error I get from PyODBC library is that drivers are not installed
I tried it on the azure ML jupyter notebook to establish the connection and found that no drivers are being installed in the environment itself. After some research i found that i should create a docker image and deploy it there, but i still met with the same results
driver= '{ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server}'
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER='+driver+';SERVER='+server+';PORT=1433;DATABASE='+database+';UID='+username+';PWD='+ password+';Encrypt=yes'+';TrustServerCertificate=no'+';Connection Timeout=30;')
('01000', "[01000] [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Can't open lib 'ODBC
Driver 13 for SQL Server' : file not found (0) (SQLDriverConnect)")
i want a result to the query instead i get this message

Answer 1

and/or you could use pymssql==2.1.1, if you add the following docker steps, in the deployment configuration (using either Environments or ContainerImages - preferred is Environments):
from azureml.core import Environment
from azureml.core.environment import CondaDependencies
conda_dep = CondaDependencies()
conda_dep.add_pip_package('pymssql==2.1.1')
myenv = Environment(name="mssqlenv")
myenv.python.conda_dependencies=conda_dep
myenv.docker.enabled = True
myenv.docker.base_dockerfile = 'FROM mcr.microsoft.com/azureml/base:latest\nRUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install freetds-dev freetds-bin vim gcc'
myenv.docker.base_image = None
Or, if you're using the ContainerImage class, you could add these Docker Steps
from azureml.core.image import Image, ContainerImage
image_config = ContainerImage.image_configuration(runtime= "python", execution_script="score.py", conda_file="myenv.yml", docker_file="Dockerfile.steps")
# Assuming this :
# RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install freetds-dev freetds-bin vim gcc
# is in a file called Dockerfile.steps, it should produce the same result.
See this answer for more details on how I've done it using an Estimator Step and a custom docker container. You could use this Dockerfile to locally create a Docker container for that Estimator step (no need to do that if you're just using an Estimator run outside of a pipeline) :
FROM continuumio/miniconda3:4.4.10
RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install freetds-dev freetds-bin gcc
RUN pip install Cython
For more details see this posting :using estimator in pipeline with custom docker images. Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Per my experience, I think the comment as #DavidBrowne-Microsoft said is right.
There is a similar SO thread I am getting an error while connecting to an sql DB in Jupyter Notebook answered by me, which I think it will help you to install the latest msodbcsql driver for Linux on Microsoft Azure Notebook or Docker.
Meanwhile, there is a detail about the connection string for Azure SQL Database which you need to carefully note, that you should use {ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server} instead of {ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server} if your Azure SQL Database had been created recently (ignore the connection string shown in Azure portal).

Answer 3

you can use AzureML built in solution dataset to connect to your SQL server.
To do so, you can first create an azure_sql_database datastore. reference here
Then create a dataset by passing the datastore you created and the query you want to run.
reference here
sample code
from azureml.core import Dataset, Datastore, Workspace
workspace = Workspace.from_config()
sql_datastore = Datastore.register_azure_sql_database(workspace = workspace,
datastore_name = 'sql_dstore',
server_name = 'your SQL server name',
database_name = 'your SQL database name',
tenant_id = 'your directory ID/tenant ID of the service principal',
client_id = 'the Client ID/Application ID of the service principal',
client_secret = 'the secret of the service principal')
sql_dataset = Dataset.Tabular.from_sql_query((sql_datastore, 'SELECT * FROM my_table'))
You can also do it via UI at ml.azure.com where you can register an azure SQL datastore using your user name and password.