title: Reccomended method of connecting to an SAP HANA tenant database
body: <p>I'm connecting to a SAP HANA tenant database. As I understand it, there are two ways to do this: first, I can specify <code>&lt;server hostname&gt;:&lt;tenant db sql port&gt;</code> for the <code>SERVERNODE</code> connection property. Second, I can specify <code>&lt;server hostname&gt;:&lt;system db sql port&gt;</code> for <code>SERVERNODE</code> and also include the <code>DATABASE</code> connection property set to <code>&lt;tenant db name&gt;</code>. It's recommended to use the second method because it makes operations like moving tenant dbs (i.e. changing sql ports) easier (see "<a href="http://help.sap.com/hana/SAP_HANA_Multitenant_Database_Containers_en.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SAP HANA Multitenant Database Containers Operations Guide</a>" section 2.9 Connections for Multitenant Database Containers). </p>
  
  <p>However, I found one instance where the <code>DATABASE</code> method resulted in not being able to make a connection while the other (non-recommended method) allowed me to connect -- when connecting to a HANA server running on an Azure VM. When I try to just provide the hostname and database name in HANA Studio I can't connect, but when I just provide the hostname:port number (and omit the DATABASE property) I can connect using ODBC Test. Interestingly, if I attempt to connect from another Azure VM I can connect using the DATABASE connection property. Any idea what's going on?</p>