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title: "sys.external_data_sources (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs"
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# sys.external_data_sources (Transact-SQL)
[!INCLUDE[tsql-appliesto-ss2016-all_md](../../includes/tsql-appliesto-ss2016-all-md.md)]

  Contains a row for each external data source in the current database for [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)], [!INCLUDE[ssSDS](../../includes/sssds-md.md)], and [!INCLUDE[ssSDW](../../includes/sssdw-md.md)].  
  
 Contains a row for each external data source on the server for [!INCLUDE[ssPDW](../../includes/sspdw-md.md)].  
  
|Column Name|Data Type|Description|Range|  
|-----------------|---------------|-----------------|-----------|  
|data_source_id|**int**|Object ID for the external data source.||  
|name|**sysname**|Name of the external data source.||  
|location|**nvarchar(4000)**|The connection string, which includes the protocol, IP address, and port for the external data source.||  
|type_desc|**nvarchar(255)**|Data source type displayed as a string.|HADOOP, RDBMS, SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, RemoteDataArchiveTypeExtDataSource|  
|type|**tinyint**|Data source type displayed as a number.|0 - HADOOP<br /><br /> 1 - RDBMS<br /><br /> 2 - SHARD_MAP_MANAGER<br /><br /> 3 - RemoteDataArchiveTypeExtDataSource|  
|resource_manager_location|**nvarchar(4000)**|For type HADOOP, the IP and port location of the Hadoop resource manager. This is used for submitting a job on a Hadoop data source.<br /><br /> NULL for other types of external data sources.||  
|credential_id|**int**|The object ID of the database scoped credential used to connect to the external data source.||  
|database_name|**sysname**|For type RDBMS, the name of the remote database. For type, SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, the name of the shard map manager database. NULL for other types of external data sources.||  
|shard_map_name|**sysname**|For type SHARD_MAP_MANAGER, the name of the shard map. NULL for other types of external data sources.||  
  
## Permissions  
 The visibility of the metadata in catalog views is limited to securables that a user either owns or on which the user has been granted some permission. For more information, see [Metadata Visibility Configuration](../../relational-databases/security/metadata-visibility-configuration.md).  
  
## See Also  
 [sys.external_file_formats &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../relational-databases/system-catalog-views/sys-external-file-formats-transact-sql.md)   
 [sys.external_tables &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../relational-databases/system-catalog-views/sys-external-tables-transact-sql.md)   
 [CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../t-sql/statements/create-external-data-source-transact-sql.md)