Diagnose an Azure SQL Database connection error

Read the number, then read its severity. The number names the layer that refused, and the severity says what kind of layer it was. Microsoft Learn defines the levels: 11 is an object or entity that does not exist, 14 is security, 16 is user-correctable configuration, 17 is the service out of some resource, 20 and above is fatal and usually takes the connection with it, and 10 is informational and is converted to severity 0 before it reaches the calling application. That last one is why the worst-explained connection failures look like they carry no number at all.

Sourced from Microsoft Learn on 2026-09-03, and checked against sqlcmd 1.10.0 and Azure CLI 2.90.0.

Step 1: make the number visible

-b sets a non-zero exit only at severity 11 and above. Without -m-1 a severity 10 message prints its text with no Msg number, which is the class 47072, 47073 and 42101 belong to.