SQL MCP Server — Foundry Demo — Resume Point

Project: Deploy Microsoft's SQL MCP Server (Data API builder) on Azure Container Apps, backed by an Azure SQL Products table, so it can be wired into a Microsoft Foundry agent (Claude, via Microsoft Agent Framework or the Foundry portal) as a Custom MCP Tool.

Working folder on this machine: ~/MCP-Azure (contains dab-config.json and Dockerfile). This is a separate folder from the agent.py / Cursor project that consumes this MCP server later — don't merge them.

Current status

Related MCP server: mcp-server-mssql

Known values (already created — don't regenerate)

RESOURCE_GROUP="rg-mcp-demo"
LOCATION="westus3"
SQL_SERVER="sql-mcp-1000"              # NOT the FQDN — just the server name
SQL_DATABASE="ProductsDb"
SQL_ADMIN="sqladmin"
SQL_PASSWORD="<not stored here — re-enter each session>"

CONNECTION_STRING="Server=tcp:${SQL_SERVER}.database.windows.net,1433;Database=${SQL_DATABASE};User ID=${SQL_ADMIN};Password=${SQL_PASSWORD};Encrypt=true;TrustServerCertificate=false;Connection Timeout=30;"

ACR_NAME="acrsqlmcp15272"
ACR_LOGIN_SERVER="acrsqlmcp15272.azurecr.io"

CONTAINERAPP_ENV="sql-mcp-env"         # not yet created
CONTAINERAPP_NAME="sql-mcp-server"     # not yet created

Re-paste this whole block into a fresh terminal at the start of each session — none of these persist across terminal tabs/restarts.

Remaining steps (resume here)

1. Confirm Docker Desktop is running

docker --version

If not installed: brew install --cask docker, then open Docker Desktop from Applications and wait for the whale icon to go steady before continuing.

2. Build the image locally, targeting the right architecture

This Mac is Apple Silicon (arm64), but Azure Container Apps expects linux/amd64 by default — build explicitly for that platform:

cd ~/MCP-Azure
docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t sql-mcp-server:1 .

3. Tag and push to ACR

az acr login --name "$ACR_NAME"

docker tag sql-mcp-server:1 "$ACR_LOGIN_SERVER/sql-mcp-server:1"
docker push "$ACR_LOGIN_SERVER/sql-mcp-server:1"

Confirm it landed:

az acr repository list --name "$ACR_NAME" --output table

Expect to see sql-mcp-server listed.

4. Create the Container Apps environment and deploy

az containerapp env create --name "$CONTAINERAPP_ENV" --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" --location "$LOCATION"

ACR_USERNAME=$(az acr credential show --name "$ACR_NAME" --query username --output tsv)
ACR_PASSWORD=$(az acr credential show --name "$ACR_NAME" --query "passwords[0].value" --output tsv)

az containerapp create \
  --name "$CONTAINERAPP_NAME" --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" --environment "$CONTAINERAPP_ENV" \
  --image "$ACR_LOGIN_SERVER/sql-mcp-server:1" \
  --registry-server "$ACR_LOGIN_SERVER" --registry-username "$ACR_USERNAME" --registry-password "$ACR_PASSWORD" \
  --target-port 5000 --ingress external --min-replicas 1 --max-replicas 3 \
  --secrets "mssql-connection-string=$CONNECTION_STRING" \
  --env-vars "MSSQL_CONNECTION_STRING=secretref:mssql-connection-string" \
  --cpu 0.5 --memory 1.0Gi

5. Get the MCP URL and test it

MCP_URL=$(az containerapp show --name "$CONTAINERAPP_NAME" --resource-group "$RESOURCE_GROUP" \
  --query "properties.configuration.ingress.fqdn" --output tsv)

echo "MCP Server URL: https://$MCP_URL/mcp"
curl "https://$MCP_URL/health"

A healthy response here means the SQL MCP Server is fully live. That URL is what goes into PRODUCTS_MCP_URL in the separate agent.py / Cursor project, or into the "Remote MCP Server endpoint" field when wiring this into Microsoft Foundry's portal (Custom MCP Tool, Authentication: Unauthenticated, Require approval: never).

Gotchas already hit and fixed (so you don't re-debug these)

1. SQL Server region capacity restriction (Free Trial subscriptions can't create SQL servers in some regions, e.g. East US) — fixed by using westus3.

2. sqlcmd (Go/Homebrew version) panics on certain flag combinations (panic: runtime error: index out of range) — worked around by verifying data via the Azure Portal Query Editor instead of the CLI.

3. dab init --connection-string "@env(...)" fails with Response file 'env(...)' does not exist — the DAB CLI's arg parser treats a leading @ as a "response file" reference. Fixed by using --connection-string=@env(...) (no space, = sign) instead of a space-separated value.

4. .NET 8.0.0 not found running dab — DAB 2.0.9 targets .NET 8, but only .NET 9 SDK was installed. Fixed with export DOTNET_ROLL_FORWARD=LatestMajor (run once per terminal session, or prefix each dotnet tool run dab ... command with it).

5. dab update Products --fields.description "Category: Electronics, Furniture, ..." truncates at the first comma — the CLI parser splits on commas. Fixed by hand-editing the Category field's description value directly in dab-config.json after generation.

6. Microsoft.ContainerRegistry provider not registered — first-time use of ACR on this subscription. Fixed with:

   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.ContainerRegistry
   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App
   az provider register --namespace Microsoft.OperationalInsights

7. az acr build fails with TasksOperationsNotAllowed — ACR Tasks (cloud-based builds) are blocked entirely for Azure Free Trial subscriptions; only a Pay-As-You-Go upgrade lifts this. Workaround: build the image locally with Docker (docker build --platform linux/amd64) and push directly with docker tag / docker push instead of az acr build. This is where we are now (Step 3 above).

Related files from earlier work (not in this folder)

• foundry-mcp-azure-sql-demo.md — full original step-by-step guide (Steps 1–6, including the no-code Foundry portal wiring and the Python SDK path).

• agent.py, .env.example, requirements.txt — a Microsoft Agent Framework + Claude-in-Foundry agent (separate Cursor project) that consumes this same MCP server via PRODUCTS_MCP_URL.