How to Query Live SQL Analysis Services Data in Claude Desktop

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an emerging, open-source standard for connecting LLMs with external services and data sources. Through MCP Servers, AI clients can perform actions like opening Jira tickets, posting Slack messages, committing GitHub branches and more. With CData MCP Servers, these capabilities expand exponentially.

In this article, we guide the reader through installing the CData MCP Server for SQL Analysis Services, configuring the connection to SQL Analysis Services, and asking questions of the data in Claude Desktop.

Prerequisites

You need to download Claude Desktop (download) and create an account before continuing.

Overview

Here's a quick overview of the steps:

1. Download and install the CData MCP Server for SQL Analysis Services
2. Configure the connection to SQL Analysis Services
3. Ask questions about the data in Claude Desktop

Step 1: Download and install the CData MCP Server

1. To begin, navigate to https://www.cdata.com/solutions/mcp/connectors and download the CData MCP Server for SQL Analysis Services.
2. Find and double-click the installer to begin the installation.
3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.

When the installation is complete, you are ready to configure your MCP Server by connecting to SQL Analysis Services.

Step 2: Configure the connection to SQL Analysis Services

1. After installation, the CData MCP Server configuration wizard should open automatically.

   NOTE: If the wizard does not open automatically, search for "CData MCP Server" in the Windows search bar and double-click the application.

2. Click the dropdown menu in MCP Configuration > Configuration Name and select ""
3. Name the configuration (e.g. "cdatassas") and click "OK."

   NOTE: This name is used as the name for the MCP server and as the prefix for all of the MCP Server's tools.

   

4. Connecting to SQL Analysis Services

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

   Enter the appropriate connection properties in the configuration wizard.

   
5. Click "Connect" to authenticate with SQL Analysis Services.
6. Finally, click "Save Configuration" to save the MCP server.

   NOTE: This saves the configuration details to a separate file and updates the Claude Desktop configuration file (claude_desktop_config.json) to start the CData MCP Server when the Claude Desktop client starts.

With the CData MCP Server configured, you are ready to start asking questions of your live data from Claude.

Step 3: Ask AI for answers from live SQL Analysis Services data

Now that we have installed the CData MCP Server and configured a connection, we are ready to start with SQL Analysis Services data in Claude Desktop.

1. Open Claude Desktop. It may take a moment for the MCP Servers to start, but you will see the list of servers and tools available in the Claude interface (look for the settings icon below the prompt bar).

   You can individually enable and disable specific tools by clicking on the server name.

2. Now that you have connected, you can ask Claude questions about the SQL Analysis Services data. For example: "Can you give me a quantitative analysis about my closed-won opportunities by industry?"

   NOTE: Claude may need to explore the SQL Analysis Services data to make sense of it before it can begin answering questions of the data. The tabular model presented by CData alongside the database tools available simplify the data exploration and analysis for an LLM.

   

Connect your AI to your data today!

CData MCP Servers make it easier than ever for LLMs to work with live enterprise data. To explore the technology hands-on, download a free MCP Server or visit the CData Community to share insights, ask questions, and help shape the future of enterprise-ready AI.