Babelfish

Babelfish provides a PostgreSQL-backed database endpoint with Microsoft TDS compatibility, which makes it suitable for workloads and tooling that expect SQL Server semantics.

Capabilities​

Architecture​

Under the hood, a Babelfish service is the same managed PostgreSQL setup as the PostgreSQL provider — a dedicated PostgreSQL server powered by the CloudNativePG operator — with the Babelfish for PostgreSQL extensions installed and enabled. Babelfish adds a T-SQL dialect and a Microsoft TDS wire-protocol endpoint on port 1433, so SQL Server clients and drivers can connect directly.

• Pinned version pairs: The version config field pins a compatible pair of PostgreSQL and Babelfish versions — for example, 17.6-5.3.0 is PostgreSQL 17.6 with Babelfish 5.3.0.
• Shared foundation: Storage (replicated Ceph block storage), networking, and the backup mechanism are identical to the PostgreSQL provider.

Schema​

Config​

Secrets​

Details / Output​

Plan​

The provider exposes one plan, Small (id: 0). Example plan: Small (id: 0).

Example in a Landscape​

schemaVersion: v0.2

run:
  sqlserver-compatible-db:
    provider:
      name: babelfish
      version: v1
    plan:
      id: 0
      parameters:
        storage: 2048
    config:
      version: "17.7-5.4.0"
    secrets:
      superuserPassword: "${{ vault.babelfishSuperuserPassword }}"

Within other runtimes, use the returned dsn directly with SQL Server compatible drivers, or use hostname and port with 1433-compatible tooling. That same internal endpoint is reachable from other Codesphere runtimes, including reactives, managed containers, and Virtual Cluster workloads.

Connecting to a Babelfish DB​

Prerequisites​

Once your Babelfish DB is deployed, you can connect to it from your Codesphere workspaces. Each service lists non-sensitive connection details in their respective settings page, in the overview tab (or in the details property in the public API payload).

Connecting via Terminal (tsql)​

You can use tsql (part of the FreeTDS package) to connect. Note that tsql might need to be installed in your workspace.

# Install FreeTDS
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.freetds

# Syntax
TDSENCRYPTION=required tsql -H <hostname> -p 1433 -U <username> -D <database>

# Example
TDSENCRYPTION=required tsql -H ms-babelfish-v1-123-my-server.ms-postgres -p 1433 -U postgres -D master

Connecting via Node.js​

Using the mssql library:

const sql = require('mssql');

(async () => {
    const config = {
        user: 'postgres',
        password: 'superSecret',
        server: 'ms-babelfish-v1-123-my-server.ms-postgres',
        port: 1433,
        database: 'master',
        options: {
            encrypt: true,
            trustServerCertificate: false
        }
    };

    await sql.connect(config);
    const result = await sql.query`SELECT 1 as val`;
    console.log(result.recordset[0].val);
})();

Backups​

Since the underlying engine of a Babelfish service is a regular PostgreSQL server, backups work exactly like backups of the PostgreSQL provider: the CloudNativePG Barman Cloud plugin stores native PostgreSQL physical backups in your S3-compatible backup store and continuously archives the write-ahead log, enabling point-in-time recovery.

Configuration, recovery, required S3 permissions, and limitations are identical to PostgreSQL — see the PostgreSQL backup documentation for examples.