Connecting to different servers in SQL Server - sql

Scenario- We have more than 100 stores and each store has a server. I've created one application to install each users desktop. Their system needs to be connected with their store server, we have local database in place with the application which has procedures which will be interacting with the server. I can't hard code the server name in each procedures and in the SQL, Using DBLink didn't work.
What is the best way to achieve this?

At login page/form in addition to Username and Password, add Server field.

Your app can list any available sql servers on the network if there is only one then connect to it. If more than one put a dialog up to the users to confirm.
You can use:
sqlcmd -L
That will return any visible sql servers

You have to say some way to the Application installed ,which server to connect to..
there are many approaches...
1.Store connection details in a table from which the application can read to like below
storeid connectionstring
1 somestring
So application at startup event,figure out which connection string to connect to..This approach would not require recompiling app and installing it everytime whenever store or connection string changes
2.In WebConfig,store connection details as key value pair like below..
<add key="storeid1" value="server=localhost;database=myDb;uid=myUser;password=myPass;" />
and then connect based on storeid,but this requires change in config file and app installation ,whenever a connection string or Storeid changes

Related

How to share an Excel file that has a SQL Query Connection

I am trying to share a file containing a table of information pulled from an external SQL query connection. It works fine for me as I have the connections set up on my PC but when I send the file out, it asks for connection credentials. I could go to each PC and enter the credentials but would prefer the end users to open up the file and use it without having to enter any credentials and would like them to be able to refresh the data as and when needed.
How would I set this up or is it even possible?
Thanks in advance.
Your connection string should be using Windows Authentication, and the local user must be a member of a domain group that has the privileges to run the query on SQL Server.
If you go to Connection Properties, open the connection, and click on Definition, the Integrated Security tag should be set to SSPI.

Error accessing the database DSN

I have an issue with logging a Support user into an Application that has a SQL Server backend.
When configuring the application itself, the SQL set-up asked me to assign whether the Security to access the Application would be Windows Authentication or SQL: server Authentication, I chose Windows Authentication, and as I was using a login called
'LabUser1' I have been able to login to the application fine.
However, when I logon to the server using a different windows login, this time 'Support', SQL keeps giving me the error:
Error accessing the database DSN
Now I know the reason is because the install of SQL happened using the 'Labuser1' profile, but how can I create a script that will allow me to add the 'Support' user to the 'Allowed Logins' so that I can logon to the app server and at least open the Application? (I have seperate logins for when I see the applicatiojn login window, so please don't confuse the matter by thinking it is a simple case of creating a login for Support....I am talking about logging into the server)
The current batch file I am trying to run is:
sqlcmd -S localhost\OCDBB01 -i createSupportlogin.sql
Then I run this batch file after having created the following SQL script:
CREATE LOGIN OCDMW1\Support FROM WINDOWS
GO
Your description of the situation is a bit confusing to me however it appears that the "SQL setup" that is part of the application configuration created a ODBC DSN that uses the credentials of person logging into the machine as the login for SQL Server.
Simply creating a new (correct) login to the SQL instance may not resolve this issue since that does nothing to modify the DSN. If you are tied to using Window Authentication for SQL access it might be necessary to create multiple DSNs for the application to use and find a way to have the correct DSN associated to the right login for the application to use.

"Cannot open database - login failed" . Works in Management Studio, not code

Oh yes, the famous error:
Cannot open database "MYDBNAME" requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user 'USERNAME'.
Let me explain my situation:
I have a database server, which has a SA account and my user account. The user has the correct mappings to my database (dbowner).
I can open the database with this user, using SQL Management Studio 2008 R2, both on the SQL server itself (using localhost), and on my frontend server.
However, when I run my application, I get the login failed error.
Strange thing is I have a test application and a production application on our frontend server. The test application has test databases on the same database server, and there are no login problems here. The only difference between the two, are the prefix which differs from "TEST" to "PROD". The test application works, the production however, doesn't. The user mappings and seem it should work on both.
Any ideas?
EDIT:
Our connectionstring:
<add key="umbracoDbDSN" value="Server=Websqlsrv01;Database=PROD_Databasename;User ID=umbraco_user;Password=password;Trusted_Connection=False" />
Sql server has a dichotomy login/user
they are 2 different entity:
http://www.akadia.com/services/sqlsrv_logins_and_users.html
maybe your sql login is not associated with an user for database PROD_Databasename but only for TEST_Databasename
another cause could be the user default database or eventually different database schemas
you can easily check if one of those is the problem simply creating a new user for PROD_Databasename and using it in connectionstring.
another way is to execute
exec sp_helpuser
in both databases (PROD and TEST) and see if the username "umbraco_user" is listed.
Anyway it is not a good practice to use same login for 2 different users:
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/16374/is-there-any-benefit-to-having-one-sql-server-login-for-multiple-users
Sometimes you need to use servername\instancename in your connection string if you've setup something other than a default instance. Use this link to find your instance name. Give that a try!
right click on you application and run as admin. This should work!

Windows Service Not Able to Access SQL?

I have create a windows service which access SQL db. The connection string is grabbed from the app.config file .
The Following is the format of the connection string
connectionString="Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;server=xxxxx\SQLEXPRESS;database=Sample;uid=sa;password=xxxxx;Trusted_Connection=False"
The Windows Installer Account Type is LocalSystem.
This service is running of some system successfully, but on some system's its showing login failure for 'SA'.
Please suggest a solution.
It's quite straightforward: login failure for 'SA' refers to the fact that the login sa exists, but the password is not. Particularly, sa is a system default login that always exists, but you have probably set the password differently on different servers.
Another thing to check is whether or not there are multiple instances on the machine. It could be \SQLExpress on one, but the default instance on another that you are meant to connect to.

Windows Application ignores app.config and uses something to connect to local database

The application sits on a virtual environment and when I remote in and run the application, it connects to the remote database. However, when I remote in with a service account and double click the same .exe, it tries to connect to the local host database and ignores the app.config. The code is the same, only the login name I use is different. The login I use is part of the local admin group. Any ideas?
You haven't indicated whether or not this is the case in your question, but my first suspicion is that you are storing the connection strings in settings, but the connection string has been marked as a user-specific setting.
In the logic of the code it was doing a comparison of the SQL server setting in the config (Settings), which was entered in lower case, against the list of SQL servers (all in upper case). Since it couldn't find any match, the datasource was blank [datasource=;],hence causing the code to look local. My fix was to use String.Compare and ignore the case, which created the match and I was able to connect to the remote SQL server.