QGTunnel Setup Guide for our Direct Service and MsSQL

To setup QGTunnel via our direct service for MsSQL endpoints, we suggest you go with the SOCKS proxy using our QGTunnel software. Here are some setup instruction to get you started:

Step 1: Download QGTunnel and Save to Root of Your Project

curl https://s3.amazonaws.com/xlroutes/qgtunnel-latest.tar.gz | tar xz

Step 2: Log in to XLRoutes Dashboard and Create the Tunnel

In the top right menu, go to Setup (Gear Icon), click on QGTunnel Configuration, then “Create a Tunnel”.

Fill in the following data:

Remote Destination: tcp://hostname.for.your.server.com:1433 
Local Port: 1433
Transparent: true
Encrypted: false

This setup assumes that the remote mssql server is located at hostname.for.your.server.com and is listening on port 1433. This is usually the default port.

The Local Port is the port number that QGTunnel will listen on. In this example we set it to 5432, but if you have another process using 1433, you may have to change it (ie: 1434).

Transparent mode allows QGTunnel to override the DNS for hostname.for.your.server.com to 127.0.0.1, which redirects traffic to the QGTunnel software. This means you can connect to either hostname.for.your.server.com or 127.0.0.1 to connect through the tunnel.

Encrypted mode can be used to encrypt data end-to-end, but if your protocol is already encrypted then you don’t need to spend time setting it up. We believe mssql is already encrypted, but you should double check.

Step 3: Change Your Code to Connect Through the Tunnel

With transparent mode and matching Local and Remote ports you should not need to change your code. You can also connect to 127.0.0.1:1433.

Without transparent mode, you will want to connect to 127.0.0.1:1433.

Step 4: Change your Startup Code

Change the startup code that starts up your application. In many platforms, this is done with a Procfile. Basically you just need to prepend your startup code with “bin/qgtunnel”.

So for a Procfile that was previously:

web: your-application your arguments

you would now want:

web: bin/qgtunnel your-application your arguments

Step 5: Setup the Environment Variable xlroutesSTATIC_URL

You need to setup the environment variable xlroutesSTATIC_URL to be equal to your Connection URL in the Setup page of our dashboard.

Please note that QGTunnel handles converting the HTTP URL and port to the SOCKS5 URL and port. So either of the connection URLs is fine.

Step 6: Commit and Push your Code

Be sure that the file bin/qgtunnel is added to your repository.

If you are using transparent mode, be sure that vendor/nss_wrapper/libnss_wrapper.so is also added to your repository.

If you are not using transparent mode, you will want to set the environment variable QGTUNNEL_DNSMODE to DISABLED to avoid seeing an error message in your logs.

Step 7: Troubleshoot Any Problems

If you have problems, enable the environment variable QGTUNNEL_DEBUG=true and then restart your application while watching the logs.

If you can’t figure it out, send XLRoutes Support the information in the logs. Please redact any sensitive information, including your XLRoutes connection URL because it contains your password.

Step 8: VERY IMPORTANT

After you get everything working, we suggest you download your QGTunnel configuration from our dashboard as a .qgtunnel file and put that in the root of your project. This prevents your project from relying on the XLRoutes website during startup.

Alternatively you can put the contents of the downloaded configuration file in a QGTUNNEL_CONFIG environment variable.

By following these steps, you can set up QGTunnel for direct MsSQL connections using XLRoutes’s Static IP services. If you have any questions or issues, contact XLRoutes Support for assistance.