Create a SQL database with the Fabric CLI

Applies to: ✅ SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

You can use the Fabric Command Line Interface (CLI) to create SQL databases in Fabric. The Fabric CLI (fab) is a fast, file‑system‑inspired command‑line interface for Microsoft Fabric.

This article and sample scripts demonstrate the basic Fabric CLI commands that can be used to deploy a Fabric SQL database.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

• You need an existing Fabric capacity. If you don't, start a Fabric trial.

  • Make sure that you Enable SQL database in Fabric using Admin Portal tenant settings. If you don't, you receive an error message "SQL database failed to create."

• You can use an existing workspace or create a new Fabric workspace.

• You must be a member of the Admin or Member roles for the workspace to create a SQL database.

• Make sure Python version 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12 is installed on your machine. Python should be accessible from your terminal, via the PATH environment variable.

• Install Fabric CLI on your machine with the following command. If you see a message about updating the PATH in the output of the installer, fix that before proceeding or subsequent steps can fail.

  pip install ms-fabric-cli
  

Create a new SQL database with Fabric CLI

1. Sign in to Microsoft Fabric. Open a command prompt and run the following command:

   fab auth login 
   

2. Follow the prompts to authenticate using your Microsoft account with access to your Fabric workspace.

3. Run the following command to create a new SQL database:

   • Replace <workspacename> with the name of the workspace where you want to create the SQL database.
   • Replace <databasename> with the name that you want to use for your new SQL database.

   fab create <workspacename>.Workspace/<databasename>.SQLDatabase
   

4. Verify the new SQL database in your workspace with the following command:

   • Replace <workspacename> with the name of the workspace where you want to create the SQL database.

   fab ls <workspacename>.Workspace 
   

   The fab ls command displays a list of all items in the workspace, including your new SQL database.

Related content

• Fabric CLI
• Options to create a SQL database in the Fabric portal