Connect to Jira Service Desk Data as a SQL Server Linked Server

SQL Server Linked Servers enable the SQL Server Database Engine to read data from remote data sources and execute commands against the remote database servers outside of the instance of SQL Server. Typically, linked servers are configured to enable the execution of a T-SQL statement that includes tables in another instance of SQL Server, or another database product such as Oracle. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, linked servers provides instant access to Jira Service Desk data from your SQL Server database. This article demonstrates how to connect to Jira Service Desk using Connect Cloud and query Jira Service Desk data in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Jira Service Desk, allowing you to query data from Jira Service Desk without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Jira Service Desk, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Jira Service Desk data quickly.

Configure Jira Service Desk Connectivity for SQL Server

Connectivity to Jira Service Desk from SQL Linked Servers is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Jira Service Desk data from SQL Linked Servers, we start by creating and configuring a Jira Service Desk connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Jira Service Desk" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Jira Service Desk.

   You can establish a connection to any Jira Service Desk Cloud account or Server instance.

   Connecting with a Cloud Account

   To connect to a Cloud account, you'll first need to retrieve an APIToken. To generate one, log in to your Atlassian account and navigate to API tokens > Create API token. The generated token will be displayed.

   Supply the following to connect to data:

   • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
   • APIToken: Set this to the API token found previously.

   Connecting with a Service Account

   To authenticate with a service account, you will need to supply the following connection properties:

   • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating user.
   • Password: Set this to the password of the authenticating user.
   • URL: Set this to the URL associated with your JIRA Service Desk endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

   Note: Password has been deprecated for connecting to a Cloud Account and is now used only to connect to a Server Instance.

   Accessing Custom Fields

   By default, the connector only surfaces system fields. To access the custom fields for Issues, set IncludeCustomFields.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Jira Service Desk Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to Jira Service Desk from SQL Server using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from SQL Server Linked Server to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
2. In the Object Explorer pane, open Server Objects, right-click Linked Servers, and select New Linked Server.
3. The New Linked Server dialogue opens. On the General page, enter the following information:
   • Enter a name for the server in the Linked server field.
   • Select the radio button Other data source and select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 as the provider.
   • In the Data source field, enter tds.cdata.com,14333
   • In the Catalog field, enter enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, JiraServiceDesk1).
4. Select the Security page. At the bottom, select the radio button labeled Be made using this security context and enter the following information:
   • Remote login - enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, test@cdata.com.
   • With password - enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
5. Click OK to create the server.
Your linked server can now be used to access the data in the data source you specified. If you need to access data from more sources, create another linked server for each one.

Execute Queries

You can now execute queries to the Jira Service Desk linked server from any tool that can connect to SQL Server. An example SQL query would be: SELECT * FROM [CDATA CONNECT CLOUD].[JiraServiceDesk1].[JiraServiceDesk].[Requests] We have successfully created a linked server that allows us to query Jira Service Desk data.

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