You have a Microsoft SQL Server 2025 instance that contains a database named SalesDB SalesDB...

Because the SQL Server 2025 instance has no outbound network connectivity , the embedding model cannot rely on a remote REST endpoint such as Azure AI Foundry or Azure OpenAI. Microsoft’s CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL documentation includes a local deployment pattern using ONNX Runtime running locally with local runtime/model paths . That is the right design when embeddings must be generated inside the SQL Server instance without external network access. Microsoft explicitly documents a local ONNX Runtime example for SQL Server 2025 and notes the required local runtime setup and model path configuration.

The permission requirement is handled by granting the application user access to use the external embeddings model. Microsoft’s AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS documentation states that, as a prerequisite, you must create an external model of type EMBEDDINGS that is accessible via the correct grants, roles, and/or permissions . Among the choices, the exam-appropriate action is to grant execute permission on the external model project to AlApplicationUser so only that database user can run embedding generation through the model.