Django python 'sql_server.pyodbc' isn't an available database backend

Question

I'm trying to connect my Django app to microsoft sql database on apache server but I get the following error messages:

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: 'sql_server.pyodbc' isn't an available database backend.
Try using 'django.db.backends.XXX', where XXX is one of:
'mysql', 'oracle', 'postgresql', 'sqlite3'

I have installed django-pyodbc-azure and it's showing up as part of (pip freeze list):

Django==2.1
django-pyodbc==1.1.3
django-pyodbc-azure==2.1.0.0
pyodbc==4.0.25

Here is settings.py database configuration:

'default': {
    'ENGINE': 'sql_server.pyodbc',
    'NAME': 'name',
    'USER': 'user',
    'PASSWORD': 'password',
    'HOST': 'host',
    'PORT': '',

    'OPTIONS': {
        'driver': 'ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server',
    },

},

Inside site-packages folder, it's doesn't show the actual django-pyodbc-azure folder but when i run the command (pip show django-pyodbc-azure), it shows the package location (/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages) which means it's successfully installed.

So I'm not really sure what is the problem.

It doesn't appear you're using a virtual environment, which I would highly recommend. /usr/local/lib/python3.5/ would be the system Python version, not your virtual environment. — FlipperPA
– FlipperPA, Commented Feb 22, 2019 at 11:14
@FlipperPA Thanks for your reply, so If I use virtual environment and install that django-pyodbc-azure inside it will actually solve my problem? — Mack
– Mack, Commented Feb 23, 2019 at 3:34
I'm guessing that is the most likely culprit. I always use virtual environments for every Python project; it is worth learning, as it will save you lots of headaches down the road! — FlipperPA
– FlipperPA, Commented Feb 24, 2019 at 0:56
I'd love to understand why using a virtual environment fixed this problem, as this doesn't seem logical to me. I get that they are always a great idea, but how can the problem have been solved by just using one? Keep safe, guys... — Jonathan
– Jonathan, Commented Jun 18, 2020 at 11:05
@Jonathan, I think the answer is "cruft" or "clutter". If you don't use a virtual environment, you will inevitably run into namespace collisions, at which point you have no idea which library you're actually pulling modules in from. This definitely seems to be the case for this issue. — Robert Rapplean
– Robert Rapplean, Commented Apr 5, 2023 at 0:19

eckad158 · Accepted Answer · 2023-01-31 12:39:15Z

14

I had the same problem. Somehow the installation of the azure-backend messed up my project.

I removed the django-pyodbc-azure and django-mssql-backend packages since they only support the older django versions. Afterwards i installed the mssql backend from https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-django

pip uninstall django-pyodbc-azure
pip uninstall django-mssql-backend
pip install mssql-django

Then i configured the DB to use 'ENGINE': 'mssql'

After this i was able to connect to our MSSQL DB using Django 3.2 and newer Versions!

edited Jan 31, 2023 at 12:39

answered Aug 31, 2021 at 12:23

eckad158

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4 Comments

Robert Rapplean Over a year ago

Still works, 4/5/2023

eckad158 Over a year ago

Maybe @Mack should mark this post as solution.

Aditya Malviya Over a year ago

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: 'mssql' isn't an available database backend or couldn't be imported. Check the above exception. To use one of the built-in backends,

romanown Over a year ago

it not work for me. django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: 'mssql' isn't an available database backend or couldn't be imported.

Thaisjt Jt · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-03 19:05:18Z

2

Try to install pip install django-pyodbc-azure

https://pypi.org/project/django-pyodbc-azure/

I had the same problem and using that it worked.

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'sql_server.pyodbc',
        'NAME': 'Name_database',
        'USER': 'User',
        'PASSWORD': 'Password',
        'HOST': 'IP',
        'PORT': '1433',
        'OPTIONS': {
            'driver': 'ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server',
        },
    }
}

answered Dec 3, 2019 at 19:05

Thaisjt Jt

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2 Comments

riffrazor Over a year ago

Appears that django-pyodbc-azure requires Django 2.*, just a heads up.

MikeSchem Over a year ago

is there another solution using Django 3.0+?

Achuth Varghese · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-15 14:05:15Z

2

+500

Use mssql-django with versions of Django >=2.2 and <4.1.
As of today current version of mssql-django==1.1.3 supports Django versions >=2.2 and <4.1 https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-django/blob/c0476cf4e49ab3dcbbab37ccb3e558216841b6dc/setup.py#L41

To use older versions of Django use django-pyodbc-azure.
The support for Django==1.8 was added by https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-django/tree/0b0cee7030795682b37da36a48ebb065a3faa00e and removed by this: https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-django/tree/204d1fc0a4ade0ebe3e1df07a943c03b5ab5cf33.

To use Django==1.8.x use pip install "django-pyodbc-azure<1.9" where it Supports Microsoft SQL Server 2005, 2008/2008R2, 2012, 2014 and Azure SQL Database: https://github.com/microsoft/mssql-django/commit/204d1fc0a4ade0ebe3e1df07a943c03b5ab5cf33#diff-7b3ed02bc73dc06b7db906cf97aa91dec2b2eb21f2d92bc5caa761df5bbc168fR241

Note: if you are using older version of Django (<2.0.0), installing mssql-django will force install/upgrade to newer supported version of django as part of its requirement.
One may need to go through readme.md, setup.py files to know the supported versions.

answered May 15, 2022 at 14:05

Achuth Varghese

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2 Comments

xralf Over a year ago

Thank you for your answer. I already used this solution. In the comment there is a solution.

Mougnou Over a year ago

That also work with Django 5.0

Jose Razo Prieto · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-31 16:58:58Z

I use python:3.9.13-slim-buster, Django 3.2 And install mssql-django

FROM python:3.9.13-slim-buster
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE 1
ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
ADD odbcinst.ini /etc/
RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y curl gnupg
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/10/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -y unixodbc unixodbc-dev tdsodbc freetds-common freetds-bin freetds-dev postgresql python-scipy python-numpy python-pandas
RUN apt-get update && ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get -y install mssql-tools msodbcsql17
RUN echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
RUN echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
RUN apt-get update
RUN pip install mssql-django
RUN mkdir /code
COPY . /code/
COPY ./requirements.txt /code/
WORKDIR /code
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
EXPOSE 8000

Create file odbcinst.ini

[FreeTDS]
Description=FreeTDS Driver
Driver=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
Setup=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so

requirements.txt

Django==3.2
django-environ==0.4.5
# psycopg2>=2.8.6,<2.9
uWSGI>=2.0.19.1,<2.1
Pillow >= 9.0.0,<10.0.0

settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'mssql',
        'HOST': os.environ.get('DB_HOST_SITO'),
        'NAME': os.environ.get('DB_NAME_SITO'),
        'USER': os.environ.get('DB_USER_SITO'),
        'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('DB_PASS_SITO'),
        'PORT': os.environ.get('DB_PORT_SITO'),
        'OPTIONS': {
            'driver': 'FreeTDS',
            'unicode_results': True,
            'host_is_server': True,
            'driver_supports_utf8': True,
            'extra_params': 'tds_version=7.4',
        }
    },
}

Majid Naddafi · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-12 06:24:39Z

-3

installing django==3.0 would be helpful

answered May 12, 2023 at 6:24

Majid Naddafi

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