We have a DB server with a couple web app db's on there (don't get a ton of traffic). We'd like to make use of the server and allow it to be the DB server for sharepoint. I'm assuming it's not good practice and that sharepoint should have it's own exclusive db server. Am I right in that conclusion, or is it alright if we put the database on a server that already hosts other databases.
You can install SharePoint on an existing DB server, sure. Unless your environment is going to be huge, I don't see why you would give it its own DB server. It will use an embedded SQL Server instance if you want, but you'll get better performance if you have the full-blown version. We're running a few SharePoint apps on our DB server with a number of other applications.
The way in which I solve this is to install a second SQL Server instance dedicated to SharePoint, as SharePoint likes to have a lot of control over the database and spews all sorts of stuff such as logins, etc. across the instance, which you really want to separate from your standard line of business instance.
The added bonus is multiple SQL Server instances on the same physical machine are included in your licence.
Be careful with the SQL Server collation. I think SharePoint requires a particular setting for this. See http://www.moss2007.be/blogs/vandest/archive/2007/07/24/sharepoint-2007-and-sql-server-collation-latin1_general_ci_as_ks_ws.aspx for one reference.
Prior to centralizing our environment we had many Sharepoint sites located on servers with existing applications. I'm not a fan of adding an additional named instance as this increases the administrative overhead for the DBA. You have to know how much use you expect of your Sharepoint instance then measure the resource utilization of your existing applications balance it from there.
Related
consider I write a desktop software in C# for example,and it reads/writes data to/from sql server,Can I run this software on a system without having sql server installed.
I saw the two links of stackoverflow,but did not get my answer.
I want to know CAN THAT BE DONE OR NOT?
if yes,how?
thanks in advance.
Sql Server must be installed, and running, somewhere to be able to use it. However, this does not need to be on local machine. The most common scenario for Sql Server is to be installed on a dedicated server machine off in a data center somewhere, and either many clients will connect to and use the same database, or one or a few web servers will connect potentially many times per second with different requests. It's not really intended for desktop use.
If you want to build a desktop app, and you want a database to use only as a local data store, Sql Server is actually a really poor choice for this. That includes the free Sql Server Express. Don't use it for applications that will be distributed to end users, where all the data will kept on each user's local system. It is a server-class engine, and works best when it can run on dedicated hardware.
Instead, you want a desktop-class or in-process database engine, such as Sqlite, Sql Server Compact (not Express) Edition, or even MS Access.
There are many SQL engines that can be embedded in desktop application. For example SQLite, there should be one with C# interoperability.
I am looking to create a database server that can be used to store data using a VB.net application. When I initially installed SQL Server 2005 Express edition, I believe I installed this using the LocalDB option.
As it stands my application is a simple tool which utilises the Process.Start command under certain situations, depending on user input, to launch Game Servers for use at a gaming LAN I assist in running.
I wish to progress the application by being able to update, delete and query a database created in SQL Server 2005 Express. I understand the use of connection strings etc, however I am wondering if the installation using LocalDB will mean that I cannot connect to the server to process the data I require.
Can I continue to use the LocalDB option and create a Database Server for specific use using my application or is a different installation option required?
Secondly, can someone point me in the right direction of how to create a new Server for this purpose? All of my searches so far have provided results for creating a database only, and not the server.
I have a couple questions about what you are trying to do.
First, why are you installing SQL Server 2005? It was released almost a decade ago.
I would go with 2012 express edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29062
Second, install the management tools. SSMS is a nice GUI to do work in.
Third, If you are spinning up anything other than express, there are licensing costs which are quite high. 9K for standard and 25K for enterprise per socket or such.
Here are the versions and features list from microsoft.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144275.aspx
Last but not least, having the express edition on another computer is fine. However, you will have to use a network protocol such as TCP/IP instead of shared memory.
It will take longer to send Tabular Data Stream (TDS) to the other computer versus talking to memory on the same computer.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/c4f06669-41fd-42e6-b4a9-564cf04ca9f7/how-to-choose-between-shared-memory-named-pipes-tcpip-via?forum=sqlgetstarted
Good luck with your project.
You can use a local instance of SQL Server just fine, if you want to set up a separate server for some reason then you'll need either a 2nd machine on which to install SQL Server, or to spin up a virtual machine. If running Windows 8 (and barring hardware limitations) you have Hyper-V at your fingertips.
This is not a complete answer for you but may give you some things to think about.
First you might want to think about your choice of database. If you don't have a compelling reason for using 2005 you will probably at least want to move to SQL Express 2008.
Second, to answer the part about creating a server... A server is something that serves data. In a general sense a computer configured to be contacted by external machines and respond with data is a server. A web server runs a program like IIS or Apache to respond with web pages. A database server contains a database and allows connections to that database. So as long as you install the database on a computer and configure it to allow external connections, you have your database server.
In MS SQL there are several things that need to be set up to allow a database to accept external connections. One is that the SQL Server Browser service will need to be active. Another is that the database itself will need to be configured to allow external connections (SQL Authentication type probably).
Hope this helps.
Addition:
SQL Remote Connection Configuration
Disclaimer, I don't have SQL Express 2005 installed but I think the settings are found in the same place in 2008. If the info here is not exact to SQL Express 2005, the general terminology used here should be enough to get you headed in the right direction to find the specifics.
While viewing the database in Server Management Studio or Enterprise Manager, right click the database server instance name (the root of the tree) and select properties. There should be a section title Connections and within this section there should be an option "Allow remote connections to this server". Make sure it is checked. The other setting you need in this properties menu is under the security area. There is a radio button for "Windows Authentication Mode" and "SQL Server and Windows Authentication Mode", you want the second that allows both.
The next step you have may be to create a new user, add a password, and connect the user to the database. That will give you the credentials you will use in your database connection string while programming. I usually add new users through the security section of the database then set the User Roles for each database that I need to connect to. It is good practice to limit the permissions to those needed by the application. Typically this is read and write, but sometimes you can get away with just read. The less the better.
I have been working on the software using a SQL Server database. Now I am in the phase when I would like to provide this software for other people, but I don't know how to manage the database. The thing is that it is really inconvenient when installing my software to also install SQL Server at the users computer (many unexpected thing could happen).
Therefore I thought that I would pay for web hosting with SQL Server, but it is:
Expensive (just for database with few tables).
Most of the web hosting don't offer remote access to the SQL Server database (so I can't connect there from my software).
So there is my question, what would you do? My own virtual server? (even more expensive), or would you install SQL Server on users computer? Or do you know where to get only SQL Server hosting for low costs?
I don't advice using a remote SQL Server. SQL Connections strongly depend on network connection and the Internet is not "stable" enough for that. There are also performance issues that will make your application completely useless.
One important thing you didn't mention is whether different users will share the same data or will have their own. If each user will use their own data you can install a "local" SQL Server Edition (SQL Compact Edition, here is the reference)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa983341(v=vs.110).aspx
In case several users will share the same data, you shouldn't rely on the database solely. One possible approach is having an Application server that implements business logic whereas your desktop application stays actiong as a "dumb" client. This is a lot better for performance and reduce data transfer problems. You can implement webservices for you application server. This is a good solution as the data is transfered from he application server to the clients through HTTP/HTTPS and this relieves you from dealing with ports and other communication issues. An alternative is using Microsoft Communication Framework (WCF)
Good luck!
I had a SharePoint server, now i want to move this from one machine to another machine.
This is what i did for the migration.
I have just installed sharepoint server in my new machine and i have removed the Sharepoint_config and wss_content databased from the new server. and i have restored both the databases from the old server. Then i tried to run the Central Admin and i got Unable to connect to content database error.
Is replacing the DB is wrong. is there any other way to migrate SP server from one machine to another. I have tried my taking Farm backup and restore i had many problem with that. so i feel replacing DB would be better for me. any suggestions please?
Move SharePoint between servers is a huge effort.
Data in databases are very depends on the SharePoint install and its environments. So, I suggest just re-install the SharePoint on the new server, and then restore site collection backups to the new install.
Install SharePoint Server on the new server machine
Backup site collections from the old server, follow this guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263441(v=office.12).aspx
Create Web Applications on the new server
Restore site collections from the prev. backups, follow this guide: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262087(v=office.12).aspx
Be aware, if you have farm level customize solutions (developed by Visual Studio) or css files deployed in the LAYOUT folder, don't forget to re-deploy them on the new server.
I guess this question is too old and my answer will not help topicstarter... However, I was looking to refresh my own knowledge on this topic and I feel it will be useful to share it here.
This solution is not good for every SharePoint deployments, of course, it's just a general idea.
And I don't think it suits production environments well... but if you are brave and foolish as myself, you can do it there as well, with some additional precautions like backups and so on.
Here are prerequisites:
SharePoint was initially installed in Farm mode (not in Single Server mode)
Both old and new servers are in the same domain
You know Farm Passphrase used for initial installation
Old server is still intact and accessible from the new server
Steps to do
Skip steps 2-6 if you don't want to move databases to new location
Install SharePoint on the new server and join to existing farm. See
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261752.aspx for details on joining procedure.
Ensure that the SharePoint is read-only. You can just shut down MS SQL DBEngine service if it's ok for your users.
Install MSSQL Server on the new server or other location you want. Remember, that it's not a good idea to keep SharePoint and MSSQL on the same server if it's not a demo/dev environment
Move all SharePoint databases to the new MSSQL Server. You can simply copy all DB files and attach it to the new SQL, or go full backup and restore way.
Important: Create an SQL client alias on the new server with cliconfg tool. See blogs.msdn.com/b/priyo/archive/2013/09/13/sql-alias-for-sharepoint.aspx for details.
Use your old SQL instance name as alias name. E.g. if your old server had SQL installed alongside with SharePoint on SharePoint.mydomain.com, alias name should be "SharePoint.mydomain.com"
Set Server name for alias to the new SQL location. Something like "NewServer.mydomain.com"
Ensure that you specify correct port number for SQL connection or configure network for default dynamic port. It is not necessary only if you have local SQL server on the same machine.
Create identical SQL client alias on the old server (this is needed to correctly remove old server from farm)
Remove old server from the farm. See this technet article for details
Update DNS settings or whatever you use to point users to the new server.
That's it. Hope it will help someone
Often in example code for software, I see a connection string eg. mysql://user#localhost
in the configuration file for the software to get access to the database. This seems fine for a test/development server but for production, this seems very insecure. What is the correct way to do this in a production environment?
Your production server should be secured, no random users/people should have access to sensitive files - such as app.config with a connection string in it.
That's pretty much the way it is on a production server as well. While it's a good idea to have the application access the database using an account that is as restricted as possible (e.g., it might not have permission to create or drop tables, schemas, databases, or might even be read-only depending on the application), if someone gains access to the application server they're pretty much going to gain at least that level of access to the database server - even if the authentication to the database is based on "trust" (i.e. some windows types of schemes), the attacker has access to the trusted host.
In past jobs, I've heard considerations of various obfuscation scenarios but ultimately they don't accomplish much.