Connect to Server (Additional Connection Parameters Page)

The Connect to dialog box of SQL Server Management Studio presents the most common connection string values as options. Use the Additional Connection Parameters page to add more connection parameters to the connection string.

  • Additional connection parameters can be any ODBC connection parameter.

  • Additional connection parameters should be added in the format ;parameter1=value1;parameter2=value2.

  • Parameters added using the Additional Connection Parameters page are added to the parameters selected using the Connect to dialog box options.

  • The last instance of each parameter provided overrides any previous instances of the parameter. Parameters added using the Additional Connection Parameters page follow and replace the parameters provided in the Login or Connection Properties tabs. For example, if the Login tab provides SERVER1 as the Server name, and the Additional Connection Parameters page contains ;SERVER=SERVER2, the connection will be made to SERVER2.

  • Parameters added using the Additional Connection Parameters page are always passed as plain text.

    Security noteSecurity Note

    Do not include login credentials and passwords in the Additional Connection Parameters page. They will not be encrypted when they are passed across the network. Use the Login tab instead.

To show the Additional Connection Parameters page

  1. In Management Studio, on the Query menu, point to Connection, and then click Connect.

  2. In the Connect to dialog box, click Options, and then click the Additional Connection Parameters tab.

Examples

Example A: Connecting to the Database Engine

To connect to the AdventureWorks2008R2 database on a server named ACCOUNTING, enter the following in the Additional connection parameters page:

;SERVER=ACCOUNTING;DATABASE=AdventureWorks2008R2

Example B: Connecting to Analysis Services

To connect to the Analysis Servers and cause all the partitions listening for notifications to be queried as real time (bypassing caching), and to set the writeback time out value to 5, enter the following in the Additional connection parameters page:

;Real Time Olap=TRUE;Writeback Timeout=5