Binding RadTabStrip to an SQL data source is very easy - just create your connection string, query the database and get the result-set into a DataTable, DataSet or DataView.Assign the result to the DataSource property of the tabstrip and call the DataBind method.

The properties you need to set to define the ID -> ParentID hierarchy are DataFieldID & DataFieldParentID respectively - just set them to the SQL data source columns defining the ID / ParentID relation. You will need to set the DataTextField property of the tabstrip to the name of the column holding the name of the respective Tab.

If you need to map additional columns from the SQL data table to properties of the respective tab, you have to hook the TabDataBound event. The event arguments passed to the event - e.Tab and e.Tab.DataItem hold the instance of the tab being bound and the DataItem associated with the tab. You can then map a property from the DataItem (make sure to cast the DataItem object to your respetive data type first - usually DataRowView) to the property of the Tab class.