I guess someone tries to logon to our sql server and error log is getting bigger. I am running out of space on hdd. What should be the solution?
Cleaning up error log regularly? Howto?
Disabling access to SQL server? For attacker IPs? For local use only? Howto?
Any other?
Regards,
Burak
we had a similar problem here, constant attempts to guess the systems password filled up the log to epic proportions.
you could disable external access via the windows firewall (if you're using windows SBS 2003) its fairly trivial but the end solution we opted for (because we still required external access ourselfs to the database server) was to change the default access port to SQL server; it seemed to stop alot of problems.
although if possible, I would also considering changing the architecture of your network slightly (sometimes this isn't possible if you have purchased some virtual machine from a service provider); moving your database server and disconnecting it from your hub/switch and plugging it into the back of your web server (if this is the ultimate use for your databases) so the web server acts as a type of proxy, prevent all external internet access.
Are you sure logins are the cause of the error-log growth? If so, you could disable remote logins:
Goto START --> Microsoft SQL server 2005 --> Configuration Tools --> SQL server surface area configuration
Select Surface area con figuration for services..
Select Databas engine --> Remote connections and choose 'local only'
Note, this will disable all remote connections to the database, so only change this if your application connects locally!
For emergency you execute sp_cycle_errorlog to start a new one, so you can delete the old one w/o restarting the server.
But the million dollar question is, of course, what is filling up the errorlog? What message shows up again and again? If you tell us that, perhaps we can help you fix the problem and eliminate the errorlog growth.
Related
I use a Microsoft Access 2010 front end with linked tables on an SQL Server 2012 installation. Local network.
When Access Starts, a VBA script runs which connects to the SQL server and performs some checks.
I recently upgraded from SQL Server 2008 to 2012, that's when the connection between client and Server started to fail intermittently.
When the connection between my client and the server fails, I see a generic message "SQL Server does not exist or access denied". This is covered in a Microsoft support article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328306. The potential causes detailed in that article do not match the trouble I am encountering.
This connection issue is intermittent. The trouble arises about 3 times a week and lasts for about 30 minutes at a time. Between these 30 minute failures, the the system works perfectly.
My Current VBA Connection String: (have tried several, trouble persists with all of them):
Dim conn As ADODB.Connection
Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
conn.Open "Provider=SQLOLEDB;Server=Server3.companydomain.local;Database=My_Database;Trusted_Connection=Yes"
I hope that I can find something in the SQL Server Logs (which I do have access to) but I do not know which Log file to investigate.
I do not have a direct answer to your question, but I believe you could start by exploring the IP and ports on which the SQL server is listening to...Is is possible that the machine using DHCP to assign IP for the DB server as well? In this case I guess it could happen when the IPs are refreshed.
We had a similar issue where multiple IPs were getting assigned on the same machine (having multiple NIC connected) which created such intermittent disruptions.
Well it's been 7 months. Here is the solution for this problem (in my case):
My secondary DNS Server was an external Server. It could not look up my database (192.168.x.x) because this is an internal address.
When My application called the Primary DNS Server to look up the SQL Server address, it worked fine. When my primary DNS was busy, and the application failed over to secondary DNS- the request would time out. There are many reasons someone may see this error. That is the reason I was seeing it.
It's a little strange, but I've found I get this error when I don't have proper "CLOSE DB CONNECTION" type code on my site. And then when too many users hit the site, I start getting this error.
Solution: Do a hard Close of DB connections, after every db call. Yes, most DB Connectors have cleanup routines, but it's not enough under heavy load.
Also, implement a high DB connection limit in the web.config
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.
We suffered a brute force attempt on our SQL database yesterday and obviously want to prevent this from happening again. The bot or whatever it was was trying to log into the sa account about 30 times a second so in the first instance we have changed the sa account and restricted the IP range that can access SQL via windows firewall. We are also considering disabling the sql server browser and changing the default port.
The problem is none of these things will prevent malicious log in attempts.
I came across a piece of open source software called QaasWall and wondered if anybody had used it and whether it is reputable.
Here is a link to the project site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/qaaswall-window/
Any other tips on how to restrict the number of server log in attempts would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
Clayton.
The best solution is completely disabling access to the database from all hosts which do not need it. E.g. by binding to localhost if the DB is only accessed locally or blocking any connections to the IP/port used by the DB in your firewall.
TheifMaster is correct...the SQL Slammer was really vicious, but installing SQL Server SP3 or SP4 fixed the vulnerability in the sql server listner that this worm exploited. When you install SQL Server 2000 Pre-SP3 from disk your server will get pinged to death...this is why I disable the network connections while installing SQL Server until I can get it fully updated.
I recently installed QAAS Wall on one of my W2003 Servers and it works, but I'm having some difficulties getting the whitelist to work property. It keeps blocking access from one of my database servers.
I have a Delphi application running on SQL Server 2000, but it's taking awfully long to connect to the database!
But when I run this application on my development server it connects pretty fast!
I am running on Windows 2003 server, SQL Server 2k personal edition, when I look on my MDAC version in the registry, I see version 2.8 already installed!
Any ideas why this happens on the production machine but not on the development machine?
There's a reasonable chance that this is down to a network level issue connecting to the database. Depending on whether you're running the application and database on the same box of course.
Try connecting to the database from the same machine using a different tool. You could set up a data source and test it from the control panel as an alternative. If the connection is slow from another tool test the connectivity between the servers for other types of connection (e.g. run a ping). It may be that it's resolving the server via broadcast rather than the domain, for instance. Or any number of other issues - firewall, switch, wins etc.
If you are connecting using integrated authentication also ensure that the database can resolve the application server as well as vice versa. This is part of the authentication process and I've seen it cause slow downs in creating database connections before.
In short, I'd be confident that this isn't a problem specific to delphi / sql, but something in the communications between your production servers.
Good luck!
Keep your connection open once you have established it. This is called connection pooling and will improve performance. I have no clue how to do it with a delphi application.
Your problem most likely is network or transport layer related
Are you connecting through TCP, Named Pipes or another mechanism?
Have you tried tracing opening a connection with Microsoft SQL Profiler?
regards,
Lieven
I had a problem a long time ago like this, and it came down to the workstation section of the connection string. its possible if you've copied the connection string from your dev machine that the workstation parameter is still in the connection string and pointing to your dev machine which probably does not exist on your deployment network.
In this case your connection to the database has to wait until the network tries to connect ot a non-existant machine (which obviously takes time). Remove the workstation cluse and it will speed up no end.
I'm running SqlServer 2005 express edition on my laptop for development purposes. It seems that when I open a connection to the database, the setup time is REALLY slow. It can take up to 10 seconds to get a connection. I usually have multiple connections open at the same time (Profiler, Development environment, Query Analyser, etc.) I have a hunch that the slow times are related to the fact that I have multiple connections open.
Is there a governor in Express edition that throttles connection times when multiple connections are made to an instance?
Update:
My workstation is not on active directory, and SQL is running mixed mode security. I will try the login with sql authentication. I am not using user instances.
Update2:
I setup a trace to try and figure out what is going on. When the connection to the database is opened the follow command is executed:
master.dbo.sp_MShasdbaccess
This command takes 6 seconds to execute.
I figured it out. The problem was I had multiple databases with AutoClose set to true. I shut it off in all my databases and the problem went away.
see this article for more info.
Are you sure the connection is the bottleneck? Is it your conn.Open() line that is taking 10 seconds?
AFAIK there's no governer anymore in SQL Express.
Now, are you on a Windows Active Directory Domain? If so, there might be an issue with your DNS or something that means the connection to the domain controller to validate your logon to the server instance is taking the time. I suggest you experiment switching the server over to use SQL Security, give the SA account a password, and try logging in as SA and see if that makes a difference.