MS SQL Server Change Tracking Agent for Gluesync: Key Features

Index

Source data from MS SQL Server (via Change Tracking)

Target MS SQL Server

Agent changelog

Troubleshooting

Core principles

This agent establishes a connection to MS SQL Server via a built-in JDBC driver.

Network protocol: TCP/IP

The Gluesync agent communicates with MS SQL Server exclusively over TCP/IP using the JDBC driver. Named Pipes is not used and is not required.

TCP/IP must be explicitly enabled in the SQL Server network configuration. In many default installations — particularly on Windows — only Named Pipes or Shared Memory may be active, which will prevent Gluesync from connecting.

To enable TCP/IP:

Open SQL Server Configuration Manager on the SQL Server host.
Navigate to SQL Server Network Configuration → Protocols for <your instance>.
Right-click TCP/IP and select Enable.
Restart the SQL Server service for the change to take effect.

For full instructions, refer to the official Microsoft documentation: Enable or Disable a Server Network Protocol (SQL Server Configuration Manager).

Change data capture

This agent implements the so-called Change Tracking feature to catch field-level changes in rows in tables that have Primary Key constraints on MS SQL Server 2008 and above.

If you don’t have Primary Keys on tables or you’re looking for the Change Data Capture (CDC) feature based on MS SQL Server’s SQL Agent, plase check out our Gluesync CDC agent for MS SQL Server’s Transaction Logs | Change Data Capture.

Supported version

With this agent, you can target any version of MS SQL Server starting from 2008.

Platform supported features

Feature	Support	Notes
Target role	✅	Streams data into SQL Server instances (on-prem or SQL Azure) through the bundled JDBC driver with TLS/pooling.
Source role	✅	Uses SQL Server Change Tracking metadata tables to read row-level deltas when primary keys are present.
Snapshots	✅	Entities can run full snapshots ahead of Change Tracking to seed targets.
CDC	✅	Continuously queries Change Tracking functions for incremental changes.
CDC type	Change Tracking	Relies on SQL Server’s Change Tracking feature (requires PKs on tracked tables).
Bulk load	✅	Can participate in staging-table Bulk load flows (SqlBulkCopy) when targeting SQL Server.
Database pooling	✅	Supports connection pooling for efficient resource utilization across multiple pipelines.
Customizable isolation level	✅	Allows specifying the transaction isolation level (e.g., READ UNCOMMITTED, READ COMMITTED, REPEATABLE READ, or SERIALIZABLE) in the agent configuration to fine-tune concurrency and consistency.
Source persisted internal cache	N/A	State is maintained by SQL Server Change Tracking tables plus Core Hub metadata.
Target persisted internal cache	N/A	Writes go straight to SQL Server without extra buffering.
Driver / connector	Built-in JDBC driver	Gluesync bundles the official SQL Server JDBC driver.
Chains	✅	Supported.
Truncate operation support (reading)	N/A	Source agent can capture and forward TRUNCATE operations to the target but MS SQL Server denies TRUNCATE operations on tables with CDC enabled.
Truncate operation support (writing)	✅	Target agent honors the “TRUNCATE before snapshot” option when enabled.

Feature

Support

Notes

Target role

✅

Streams data into SQL Server instances (on-prem or SQL Azure) through the bundled JDBC driver with TLS/pooling.

Source role

✅

Uses SQL Server Change Tracking metadata tables to read row-level deltas when primary keys are present.

Snapshots

✅

Entities can run full snapshots ahead of Change Tracking to seed targets.

CDC

✅

Continuously queries Change Tracking functions for incremental changes.

CDC type

Change Tracking

Relies on SQL Server’s Change Tracking feature (requires PKs on tracked tables).

Bulk load

✅

Can participate in staging-table Bulk load flows (SqlBulkCopy) when targeting SQL Server.

Database pooling

✅

Supports connection pooling for efficient resource utilization across multiple pipelines.

Customizable isolation level

✅

Allows specifying the transaction isolation level (e.g., READ UNCOMMITTED, READ COMMITTED, REPEATABLE READ, or SERIALIZABLE) in the agent configuration to fine-tune concurrency and consistency.

Source persisted internal cache

N/A

State is maintained by SQL Server Change Tracking tables plus Core Hub metadata.

Target persisted internal cache

N/A

Writes go straight to SQL Server without extra buffering.

Driver / connector

Built-in JDBC driver

Gluesync bundles the official SQL Server JDBC driver.

Chains

✅

Supported.

Truncate operation support (reading)

N/A

Source agent can capture and forward TRUNCATE operations to the target but MS SQL Server denies TRUNCATE operations on tables with CDC enabled.

Truncate operation support (writing)

✅

Target agent honors the “TRUNCATE before snapshot” option when enabled.

Change Tracking

Works with MS SQL Server Server 2008 and above, hosted on-prem or in any DBaaS, SQL Azure as well. Every edition is supported. Requires Primary Keys defined in tables.

Q&A

I have got MS SQL Server running under Microsoft Azure, is it supported? Microsoft Azure gives you the ability to obtain a fully managed instance of SQL Server called SQL Azure. SQL Azure is fully supported by Gluesync.