These instructions will help you connect Bamboo to a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 database.
(Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is not a supported database for use with Bamboo.)
SQL Server Express 2005 and 2008 are not recommended databases due to CPU, memory, database size limitations (please see these pages for full details: SQL Server Express 2005 feature comparison, SQL Server Express 2008 feature comparison). However, the instructions below will allow you to connect Bamboo to SQL Server Express 2005/2008.
Please note, the JDBC driver for SQL Server 2005/2008 (JTDS 1.2.2) is bundled with Bamboo. You do not have to download and install the driver.
1. Configuring SQL Server
Before you connect Bamboo to a SQL Server, you need to configure the SQL Server appropriately.
- Change server authentication to 'SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode' — On a typical SQL Server installation, 'Windows Authentication' mode is the default security mode. However, if you try to connect to the database with a database user using this authentication mode, SQL Server will throw an error. You need to change the server authentication mode to 'SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode' in SQL Server before you can connect Bamboo to SQL Server. Please see this MSDN article for instructions on how to do this.
Screenshot: Changing the SQL Server authentication mode (click to view larger image)
- Configure your firewall to allow SQL Server access — If you need to access SQL server through a firewall, you will need to configure your firewall appropriately. The following MSDN article describes how to configure a Windows firewall to allow SQL Server access, however the instructions are applicable to other firewalls: Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access.
- Enable the TCP/IP protocol for your database instance — You must enable the TCP/IP protocol for your SQL Server database instance by following the instructions in this MSDN article.
2. Creating Your Database
3. Connecting Bamboo to SQL Server
Bamboo provides two ways to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server database — via JDBC or via a datasource. JDBC is generally simpler and is the recommended method.
If you are planning to support Unicode in Bamboo please enable unicode settings for SQL Server
Connecting via JBDC
To connect Bamboo to a Microsoft SQL Server database, via JDBC,
- Run the Setup Wizard and choose the 'Custom Installation' method.
- On the Choose a Database Configuration page, choose 'External Database', select 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008' from the list and click the 'Continue' button. The Database Configuration page will appear.
- Ensure that 'Direct JDBC connection' has been chosen and complete the following fields (as shown in the screenshot below):
- 'Driver Class Name' — Type the following:
net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver (if different from the default)
- 'Database URL' — Type the URL where Bamboo will access your database, e.g.
jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://localhost:1433/<database>. For details about syntax, please refer to the Microsoft SQL Server documentation.
- 'Username' — Type the username that Bamboo will use to access your database.
- 'Password' — Type the password that Bamboo will use to access your database.
- Select the 'Overwrite existing data' check box if you wish Bamboo to overwrite any tables that already exist in the database.
- Click 'Continue' to finish specifying your connection settings.
Screenshot 1: 'Set Up JDBC Connection SQL Server 2005/2008'

Connecting via a datasource
To connect Bamboo to a MS SQL Server, via a datasource,
- Configure a datasource in your application server (consult your application server documentation for details).
For details about the syntax to use for the SQL Server database URL, please refer to the Microsoft SQL Server documentation.
- Run the Setup Wizard and choose the 'Custom Installation' method.
- On the Choose a Database Configuration page, choose 'External Database', select 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008' from the list and click the 'Continue' button. The Database Configuration page will appear.
- Choose 'Connect via a datasource (configured in the application server)' (as shown in the screenshot below).
- In the 'JNDI name' field, type the JNDI name of your datasource, as configured in your application server.
If java:comp/env/jdbc/DataSourceName does not work, try jdbc/DataSourceName (and vice versa).
- Select the 'Overwrite existing data' check box if you wish Bamboo to overwrite any tables that already exist in the database.
- Click 'Continue' to finish specifying your connection settings.
Screenshot 2: 'Setup Datasource Connection'

Unicode Characters Not Supported By Default
Problem
Non-ASCII characters will not be displayed by Bamboo.
Reason
The default SQL Server dialect uses column types that do not support Unicode, specifically the char, varchar and text column types. See CONF-4786 for details.
Solution
To add Unicode support, use the Unicode SQL Server dialect which uses nchar, nvarchar and ntext column types. Unicode SQL Server dialect has the downside of halving the maximum length of each column from 8000 characters to 4000, as every char is stored in two bytes.
Enable Unicode SQL Server dialect on a new setup, perform these steps prior to 'Step 3 - Database Connection Setup'.
- Open the <bamboo-install>\webapp\WEB-INF\classes\database-defaults\mssql.properties file within your Bamboo installation folder.
- Comment the line: dialect=net.sf.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect
- Uncomment the line: #dialect=net.sf.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerIntlDialect
- Start the Bamboo Setup Wizard