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SSL certificate to connect Google Looker Studio to on-prem SQL Server

  • August 28, 2025 at 2:01 pm

    #4642120

    We have been asked to connect Google's Looker Studio to an on-prem instance of SQL Server 2022. Our instance has "Force Encryption" enabled, and uses a private domain CA certificate.

    In the connection string dialog for Looker Studio, there is an "Enable SSL" checkbox and an option to upload a Microsoft SQL Server SSL Configuration File.

    Presumably it would be bad practice to export the certificate from our database server and upload to Google. Whilst we could set "trustServerCertificate=true" to force the JDBC driver to accept the certificate without validating the chain, we understand that this would leave the data transmission open to MITM attacks.

    Do we need to replace our local SSL certificate with one from a public certificate authority (e.g. DigiCert, Let’s Encrypt, etc), in order for Google to trust it automatically? Or is there another way to do this? Frustratingly we have not found any helpful documentation on the best practice for this.

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  • August 29, 2025 at 8:17 am

    #4642530

    Is the following approach safe?

    Export the public half of the certificate chain using the root CA certificate via MMC (Windows Certificate Manager

    1. Open mmc.exe → File → Add/Remove Snap-in → choose Certificates → “Computer account” → Local computer.
    2. Navigate to your SQL Server certificate:

      1. Usually under Certificates (Local Computer) → Personal → Certificates.
      2. Look for the one SQL Server is bound to (matching the FQDN).

    3. Right-click the Root CA certificate (the top of the chain that issued your SQL Server’s cert), or the issuing CA if you have intermediates.
    4. Choose All Tasks → Export.
    5. In the wizard:

      1. Choose No, do not export the private key.
      2. Choose Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER).
      3. Save as something like "ca-chain.cer".

    This .cer file is what you upload to Looker Studio.

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