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Security and identity ⇄ Database

Azure Active Directory to SQL Server integration — real-time, two-way sync

Keep Azure Active Directory and SQL Server in sync without custom scripts. Cut weeks of integration work, eliminate silent data drift, and give your team a single, reliable source of truth.

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Why teams connect Azure Active Directory and SQL Server

Close the gap between your application data and your directory: SQL Server and Azure Active Directory share users, groups, and access in real time, in both directions.

Azure Active Directory is the system of record for who people are and what they can reach: users, the groups they belong to, and the applications assigned to them. SQL Server holds the operational data those same people show up in, whether an employee or member table that decides who should have an account at all, a customers list, or the rows an application checks before it authorizes an action. The two describe overlapping users and groups, and when a nightly export or a hand-run script is all that connects them, accounts lag joiners and leavers and the application authorizes against a stale picture of who has access.

Stacksync syncs Databases, Schemas, Tables, Views in SQL Server with Group memberships, Applications, Service principals, Directory roles in Azure Active Directory field by field, in real time, and in both directions. You decide which system owns which fields, with the directory holding credentials and group membership and the database holding the source list of people who should exist at all, and Stacksync keeps every copy consistent, resolving conflicts by rules you set. A person added to a table becomes an account within seconds, a departure disables one just as fast, and the directory's users and groups are always present in your tables as ordinary rows.

Common use cases

  • 01 Consolidate branch or plant databases into a single operational SQL Server hub
  • 02 Bi-directional sync between SQL Server rows and CRM objects so .NET line-of-business apps and sales tools share one dataset
  • 03 Replicate Groups and their Members into a Postgres warehouse for access reviews and entitlement reporting.
  • 04 Mirror Applications and Service principals into a database or CMDB to track app ownership and credential expiry.

Common sync patterns

Provision accounts from the source of truth

When a person is added to the employee, member, or customer table in SQL Server, Stacksync creates the matching user in Azure Active Directory with the right attributes, so access starts from live data instead of a manual ticket.

Deprovision the moment the record changes

When someone is marked inactive or removed in SQL Server, the matching account in Azure Active Directory is disabled within seconds, closing the window between a departure and a login that still works.

Read users and groups as ordinary tables

Users, groups, and their memberships from Azure Active Directory land in SQL Server as rows your application and queries can join, so authorization checks and access reporting run against the database instead of the directory API.

What you can sync between Azure Active Directory and SQL Server

Representative objects on each side — any object or custom field can map to any target. Schemas are auto-detected; types are converted between the two systems.

Azure Active Directory objects SQL Server objects How this pairing syncs
Directory roles /directoryRoles and roleManagement assignments; read for privileged-access reviews, with role-assignment writes where the granted scopes permit. CDC Change Tables System-populated tables holding captured inserts, updates, and deletes for consumers. Directory roles is specific to Azure Active Directory and CDC Change Tables to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Devices /devices registered or joined to the tenant; typically read-only into asset and security databases. Stored Procedures T-SQL logic that can validate or post-process synced rows. Devices is specific to Azure Active Directory and Stored Procedures to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Users /users in Microsoft Graph; synced two-way — profile attributes, accountEnabled, and assignedLicenses are read out while provisioning writes (create, update, disable, delete) are pushed back. Databases Instance-level databases that scope a sync's reads and writes. Users is specific to Azure Active Directory and Databases to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Groups /groups covering security and Microsoft 365 groups; created, updated, and deleted through Graph, and read into warehouses for entitlement reporting. Schemas Namespaces (dbo and custom) used to organize synced tables. Groups is specific to Azure Active Directory and Schemas to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Group memberships Member and owner relationships on /groups/{id}/members; added and removed via the $ref endpoint and tracked for changes with delta query on $select=members. Tables The primary sync target; rows map to records in connected systems. Group memberships is specific to Azure Active Directory and Tables to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.
Applications App registrations under /applications; usually read into a database or CMDB for app ownership and credential-expiry tracking. Views Read-side projections used as outbound sync sources. Applications is specific to Azure Active Directory and Views to SQL Server — each maps to any object or custom field on the other side.

How changes propagate between Azure Active Directory and SQL Server

Each direction of the sync is driven by what the source system can signal and what the destination accepts — detection, delivery, and expected latency below.

Azure Active Directory SQL Server Sub-second propagation

DetectionAzure Active Directory notifies Stacksync of record changes through webhook events. Microsoft Graph delta query (deltaLink tokens returning only changed users and groups, with @removed deletions) paired with change-notification.

DeliveryEach detected change is applied to SQL Server as a row-level write, with types converted between the two schemas.

SQL Server Azure Active Directory Sub-second propagation

DetectionChanges in SQL Server are captured at the source via change data capture — no polling loop against its API. SQL Server Native Change Data Capture (CDC).

DeliveryEach detected change is written to Azure Active Directory through its API, with automatic retries and rate-limit backoff.

Rate-limit considerations

  • Azure Active Directory: Resource-unit throttling: roughly 8,000 ResourceUnits per 10 seconds per app for reads on tenants over 500 users, writes near 3,000 requests per 2.5 minutes; 429 responses include a Retry-After header.
  • SQL Server: No API rate limits; throughput depends on instance resources, licensing tier, and connection limits.
What ships with Azure Active Directory ⇄ SQL Server

Connect Azure Active Directory and SQL Server for flexible, real-time data sync.

Real-time sync, workflow automation, event queues, EDI, and monitoring, for every Azure Active Directory–SQL Server connection.

Real-time

Two-way sync

Changes in Azure Active Directory or SQL Server instantly reflect in both systems. No stale data, no manual imports.

No-code + pro-code

Workflow automation

Trigger automated workflows whenever Azure Active Directory or SQL Server data changes, update records, fire webhooks, or kick off sequences without brittle API scripts.

At scale

Event queues

Handle millions of events per minute without losing a single Azure Active Directory or SQL Server record.

Observability

Monitoring

Track your Azure Active Directory ⇄ SQL Server sync health, view errors, and replay failed events in one click.

Trading partners

EDI

Transform legacy EDI complexity into simple database interactions between Azure Active Directory and SQL Server.

How the Azure Active Directory and SQL Server connectors work

Azure Active Directory

Integration surface
Microsoft Graph REST API (v1.0)
Authentication
OAuth 2.0 via the Microsoft identity platform using an Entra ID app registration; app-only (client credentials) or delegated flows, with directory scopes such as User.ReadWrite.All and Group.ReadWrite.All requiring tenant admin consent
Change detection
Microsoft Graph delta query (deltaLink tokens returning only changed users and groups, with @removed deletions) paired with change-notification webhook subscriptions for near-real-time push
Capabilities
read · write · webhooks
Rate limits
Resource-unit throttling: roughly 8,000 ResourceUnits per 10 seconds per app for reads on tenants over 500 users, writes near 3,000 requests per 2.5 minutes; 429 responses include a Retry-After header

SQL Server

Integration surface
SQL over the TDS wire protocol (Tabular Data Stream), via ODBC/JDBC/ADO.NET drivers
Authentication
Database credentials entered as a connection string or as parameters (host/user/password) in the Create New Sync page
Change detection
SQL Server Native Change Data Capture (CDC); a DBA runs a one-time setup script with sysadmin privileges to enable CDC and create Stacksync wrapper procedures
Capabilities
read · write · CDC
Rate limits
No API rate limits; throughput depends on instance resources, licensing tier, and connection limits
SQL Server setup guide
How it works

How to connect Azure Active Directory to SQL Server — three steps, no code

Configure and sync within minutes, no code. Whether you sync 50k or 100M+ records, Stacksync handles the queues, infra, and plumbing. Integrations are non-invasive and need zero setup on your systems.

  1. 01

    Connect your apps

    Authenticate Azure Active Directory and SQL Server with each platform's native method — OAuth, API keys, or service accounts — plus secure options like SSH tunneling, IP whitelisting, and VPC peering.

    • OAuth 2.0
    • SSH tunnel
    • VPC peering
    Azure Active Directory connected
    SQL Server connected
    OAuth 2.0
    SSH tunnel
    SSL certificate
    VPC peering
  2. 02

    Choose tables

    Pick the Azure Active Directory and SQL Server objects to sync — Stacksync auto-detects both schemas, including custom fields where the platform exposes them. Sync to existing tables, or let Stacksync create new ones with ideal data types.

    • Standard objects
    • Custom objects
    • Auto-schema
    objects · Azure Active Directory ⇄ SQL Server
    Customers 12,480
    Sales Orders 8,213
    Invoices 5,902
    Items 1,344
  3. 03

    Map fields

    Fields map automatically even when names and types differ. Stacksync handles transformation and type casting for you, zero configuration required.

    • Auto-map
    • Type casting
    • Transforms
    Azure Active Directory SQL Server
    Company company_name text
    Email email text
    Amount amount numeric
    Created created_at timestamp
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FAQ

Azure Active Directory and SQL Server integration FAQ

SECURITY

Security teams trust Stacksync

As a data company, we understand the importance of keeping your data secure. Stacksync is built with security best practices to keep your data safe at every layer, and is DPF-certified for US, EU, UK and CH data transfers.

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SSO & SCIM

Let your users access Stacksync from your centralized user management systems. Works with Okta, Azure, Google SSO and more.

Alerts

Immediately get alerted about record syncing issues over email, Slack, PagerDuty and WhatsApp. Resolve issues from a centralized dashboard with retry and revert options.

Secure connection options

Securely connects to your systems with:

OAuth 2 SSH Tunnelling SSL certificates IP Whitelisting VPN gateway VPC peering and more

Related integrations

Every pair below is a real-time, two-way sync. Search all 537 integrations available for Azure Active Directory and SQL Server.

Popular · 8 of 537
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