You are preparing to migrate to the new SharePoint environment. You need to configure SQL Server connectivity. What should you do?

A SQL Server client alias, configured via SQL Server Configuration Manager, maps a logical alias name to the actual SQL Server instance name and port. This is the standard SharePoint guidance for SQL connectivity because it allows the underlying SQL Server to be renamed or moved without reconfiguring every SharePoint server, which is critical during a migration where the SQL instance name may change.

A CNAME DNS record aliases one hostname to another at the network level but does not provide SQL Server-specific connectivity configuration such as protocol or port mapping.

Request Management is a SharePoint service for routing and throttling incoming HTTP requests, not for managing SQL Server database connections.

A SQL Server failover cluster provides high availability for SQL Server but does not configure how SharePoint locates or connects to the SQL instance during migration.