Using Liquibase with MSSQL
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system. SQL Server supports different editions and components that accommodate unique performance and depend on your specific requirements.
Note: For more information, see the SQL Server documentation page.
Supported versions
- 2008 – officially certified
- 2012 – officially certified
- 2014 – officially certified
- 2016 – officially certified
- 2017 – officially supported and tested with Test Harness
- 2019 – officially supported and tested with Test Harness
Prerequisites
- Install Liquibase.
- Create a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files.
- Create a new Liquibase properties file or use the
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
Install drivers
To use Liquibase and Microsoft SQL Server, you need to have the JDBC driver .jar file.
liquibase/internal/lib
directory.
If you use Maven, you also need to download the driver JAR file and configure your Maven pom.xml
file to use the local copy of the driver. For more information, see Configuring Liquibase Attributes in your Maven POM File. For example:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.microsoft.sqlserver</groupId>
<artifactId>mssql-jdbc</artifactId>
<version>10.2.0.jre8</version>
</dependency>
Test your connection
For Liquibase and Microsoft SQL Server to work, you need to:
- Ensure your Microsoft SQL Server is configured. You can check the status by using one of a management tool or by running the
ping
command. Also, you can use the sqlcmd utility and runsqlcmd -SmyServer\instanceName
.
Note: Replace myServer\instanceName
with the name of the computer and the instance of SQL Server that you want to connect to.
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file, as follows:
- Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset.
url: jdbc:sqlserver://<host>:<port>/<dbname>
Note: Depending on the configuration you use, your URL format may be different. For more information, see Building the Connection URL.
Tip: To apply a Liquibase Pro key to your project, add the following property to the Liquibase properties file: liquibaseProLicenseKey: <paste code here>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR, PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Tip: Formatted SQL changelogs generated from Liquibase versions before 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ). To fix this, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
- Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful. You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
- Inspect the SQL with the update-sql command. Then make changes to your database with the update command.
liquibase --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> status
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update-sql
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update
From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.

