topic Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver in Administration and Deployment

SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

kumarsandip975 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:12:41 GMT

Hi,
Could you please help us to understand the root cause with the below error,

Please note, we have this issues when we enabled Kerberos authentication to SAS Studio environment(running on windows with SAS 9.4 M8). It was working fine before Kerberos implementation.

73 libname SQLXXX01 SQLSVR datasrc=SQLXXX01 schema=abc;

ERROR: CLI error trying to establish connection: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]Login failed for user 'NT

AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON'. : [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]Invalid connection string attribute

ERROR: Error in the LIBNAME statement.

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

Eddie305 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:34:08 GMT

Please check that your SQL Server is using NT authentication or SA authentication.

Where do you provide the DB user account and password to set up the library before the Kerberos implementation?

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

kumarsandip975 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:25:47 GMT

I guess this is because we have changed to run object spawner services running to one of service account, earlier it was running with local system . I am not quite sure how it was working before juts defining libname statement, could be SAS was using windows authentication ? Do I need to consider Kerberos delegation between the SAS Workspace Server and SQL Server?

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

gwootton — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:45:17 GMT

If the Object Spawner and SQL Server are running using service accounts on different hosts, you may need to perform the steps discussed here to provide those service accounts with SPNs.

Manually Registering Object Spawner SPNs
https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/bicdc/9.4/bisecag/n1d1zo1jsf2o0en1ehu4c4simfky.htm#p0okm1tr2plixyn1r7zu1xww75tl

Manually Registering SQL SPNs
https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/bicdc/9.4/bisecag/n1d1zo1jsf2o0en1ehu4c4simfky.htm#n0f8oogy41y9ncn10d14p550u72l

If you are using constrained delegation, you would also need to allow the SAS SPN to delegate to the SQL Server SPN:

Configure Kerberos
https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/bicdc/9.4/bisecag/p1jg2eif6qym5qn1co79sdclcyt7.htm#n1t1pem89bgx20n18thw1u46yexi

and also be sure to set the SAS_CONSTRAINED_DELEG_ENABLED environment variable:

Kerberos on Windows
https://go.documentation.sas.com/doc/en/bicdc/9.4/bisecag/p1jg2eif6qym5qn1co79sdclcyt7.htm#p187xli70ju0ncn11rm0n1xi0340

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

kumarsandip975 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:23:33 GMT

Thanks, that makes sense. Our SAS application server and SQL Server are indeed hosted on different machines, so I’ve requested the AD team to delegate the required SPNs to the service account running the Object Spawner. I’ll share an update once I hear back from them.

Everything else seems to be in place, since Kerberos authentication is already working successfully from SAS Studio and the backend SAS services. It looks like only the database side was missing the required configuration.

I do have one additional question: If you can assist me, we also connect to other databases such as Oracle and PostgreSQL through ODBC drivers on different servers. Should we expect a similar Kerberos delegation requirement for those, or is this issue specific to SQL Server? So far, no one has reported authentication problems with Oracle or PostgreSQL, so I’m not entirely sure whether Kerberos is involved for those connections in our SAS environment.

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

gwootton — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:05:39 GMT

If those data sources are configured for Kerberos authentication you would similarly need to be allowed to delegate to the SPNs they use. It sounds like these are not configured for Kerberos authentication.

Re: SAS Studio to MSSQL Database connection issue via ODBC driver

kumarsandip975 — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 22:36:06 GMT

This got fix as you suggested, thanks for help.