My client is utilizing software that is SQL-based, the database having been set up by the software vendor for us. During a call I had made to the software vendor to ask them to connect to the SQL server to look at a problem we were having with the software, the software vendor told me that they could not proceed with troubleshooting and investigating the issue because Always Encrypted had been set on the database. Unfortunately the support technician could not tell me much about this, only that it was a road block for them and that it needed to be disabled, and that managing SQL databases to that extent was out of scope for their support.
I tried to look up how to disable or remove that feature from our database but all of the information I have found so far is about setting it up, not taking it down. I haven't tried to "tinker" with this at all on my own as what I have read so far tells me that this is definitely something that should not be touched without sufficient familiarity with managing SQL databases to know that modification of that feature on the database won't have potential negative ramifications (besides the data not being encrypted).
How can I remove or disable this feature from our database so I can get the software vendor to continue taking a look at their database?
Notes:
We have SQL Server 2017.
I don't know much about SQL Server - if a solution would have complications I might be expected to be aware of in trying it, I'm afraid I really won't be aware of them they're mentioned, which is something I'm also hoping to get from an answer (if applicable). I want to make sure I do it right.
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I have a number of MS Access databases that range from the simple to the fairly complex. They exist as split databases on a shared drive on an on site LAN and the users all have accdr front ends to work with.
Until Covid 19 this worked quite well, now we all have to work from home. While I expected some performance issues, I did not quite expect performance to take quite that much of a hit. So I am looking for ways to migrate to something that will work well with everyone trying to work via a VPN.
An additional fly in the ointment is that there is no budget to work with and getting IT support is akin to summoning the great old ones (it's difficult and you are likely to die insane).
So I have begun to research some different options. MS SQL Server has come up, but I don't know very much about how to implement it. I do not have a dedicated machine to put this on.
I have looked at Sharepoint, but some of the stuff I have been reading makes it seem like this is not a great option as some of my queries are complicated and I have some pretty large tables (45k records, 100 fields per record) In the most complex DB, I have to add several thousand records each day and run several update queries on the freshly added records.
MS Azure looks promising, but again I don't know if that will put me at odds with the malevolent IT gods.
I started looking at office 365 Power apps, but I don't need any mobile device support and it doesn't look like it has the Oomph I need.
Google and Duck Duck Go haven't thrown up anything usefull that I could find among the dross. I'm certain what I need is out there, I just can't find it. I have found that One drive is right out, and likewise Sharepoint for anything other than the simplest DB I have built.
What I am looking for is any solutions, articles, books or even papyrus scrolls and stone tablets that might get me pointed in the right direction. Any Ideas? Any other information you need?
Edit: After so looking I have found that I may be able to get MS SQL server on a virtual server without angering the IT demons. Azure as a solution is out unless I find a suitable sacrifice. Any good places to look for information on how to use SQL server from a standing start?
Consider migrating the backend databases to SQL Server. There's a SQL Server Migration Assistant that will do this for you. Your frontend will contain links to the resulting SQL Server tables.
The last time I did this I got an immediate 2X performance improvement on a LAN. Over a VPN, you should expect similar, possibly better, performance improvements. Quite a good win for something so simple to do without having to do a full rewrite. Don't expect miracles however; Access by nature is a very thick client.
You don't necessarily need a full-blown SQL Server; SQL Server Express should suffice, and you can run that on any machine on your LAN. The download for SQL Server Express Edition can be found here.
You can read up on the migration process here.
You should consider using Remote Destop Connection first!
As you already managed to connect employees by VPN to LAN, you just need to enable remote access to their machines at work! That is the simplest solution and it doesn't need a fast connection or any changes on the application. You can enable WOL so they can turn on machines themselfes.
Of course you should also consider migrate to a RDBMS like Robert advised!
I am working for a company and I need to create a program really fast. My program will run with 100 users and they will make approximately 100 transactions each per day. As I am under time pressure, and various other constraints it is not possible to set up a proper database running on a server. I am therefore looking for alternatives that have some sort of transaction support without running on a server. I believe this could be solved using Microsoft Access, which is an alright solution, though I believe I will run into locking problems. Isn't is so that a whole table is locked as soon as one user attempts to read from it? Anyways... My question is what other alternatives there are.
The real answer is likely to vary significantly depending on what quantity of data is being talked about here.
I'd take a look at SQLite. It supports transactions, triggers, etc and is supported by things like NHibernate which may make your database mapping life much easier.
Check out SQLite.
Is sqlite a proper solution? Not sure how remote storage is supported, though. That's not a common feature.
You could look into SQL CE, it's a very good local database from Microsoft.
There are many options. As others have stated, setting up and running with SQLLite, SQL Server Express, or any of a number of other small, light, and free databases.
Assuming you need this today, I would go with the one you know most about. Further, I would stay away from anything resembling Access. If you don't already have experience in using it for multi user access, you are going to burn too much time figuring out the problems.
That said, I'd lean towards SQL Server express first. It's free and can scale up to full sql server with no code changes.
I believe this could be solved using Microsoft Access, which is an alright solution, though I believe I will run into locking problems.
I'd say locking and queuing would be the least of your worries. With 100 concurrent users, Access will probably corrupt itself in minutes. With 10k+ records/day, it will likely bog down your entire network in a month or so.
As I am under time pressure, and various other constraints it is not possible to set up a proper database running on a server.
You can bring a database server up in an hour. Much less time than you'll spend hacking away at Access. There's open-source virtual machine images, MSSQL Express, hosted solutions, etc. Time and cost should be non-issues.
About the only thing I can think of that would have you using Access is the Forms support (which can be hooked to MSSQL Server) or DBA maintenance. Frankly, though, at 100 users Access will take so much babysitting that you can afford a hosted SQL instance and still come out ahead.
I think that Firebird can be a very good alternative.
Firebird is available in embedded and can also work with server. It have many features.
I am not a DBA by any means, but being a web developer means that I will have to install, setup, and administer databases. In the past, I have just followed the default installation for SQL Server. Over time, I have grown smarter and learned that default installations almost always leave doors open and leak.
So...What are the critical settings that should be thoroughly evaluated when installing SQL Server 2005 for someone of my caliber? or 2008? Or is every setting "critical?"
Any good resources that will guide through a "proper" setup of SQL Server 2005?
Every setting is critical - but the things I always double check are:
Authentication type - Integrated or SQL? If SQL, make sure you put in a very strong sa password.
Service Accounts - think through what you want for the accounts. I generally create a domain user for each service separately, and run them with least priviledges.
database paths. Decide up front where you want your system databases & user databases - its much easier to do that during the install than deciding after the fact.
Though this has mostly gone away with 64-bit, I always make sure that "AWE" is enabled if SQL is the only thing running on the server and it's 32-bit. This way, SQL Server has access to all the memory the server has (up to 3GB in a 4GB server) instead of being restricted to the normal 2GB.
I second the opinion that they're all important, and they all have different purposes, so it's a matter of your environment.
Most settings can be accepted with the default settings. SQL 2005 has been changed to be more secure by default.
Be sure to do the steps to prepare accounts to use.
You might also look at your server hardware and try to separate OS, SQL Binaries, Data and Logs onto separate drives.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143516.aspx - for all the juicy details.
Post install, you should set up dbmail and then set up maintenance plans that notify you on failure of backups or maintenance.
Drive configuration! Where you'll place your log and database files is of absolutely paramount importance in terms of performance
My number one setting to check is the server's collation. This will control the collation of the system databases, and you should ensure that the new server's collation is the same as the old one to avoid collation errors. Ideally your user database will be the same collation.
If the two collations are different, and you compare varchar data from TempDB to varchar data from your user database, you'll need to specify the collation.
Just about every other setting can be changed later, but server collation is one that you're stuck with for keeps. (Technically, you can rebuild the system databases with a new collation, but it's not worth the effort, and still requires you to run Setup again).
The Microsoft documentation in Books on Line and elsewhere is pretty thorough and accurate. I think it's the best documentation that Microsoft does. So I'd be rigorous about "RTM" before anything I would write here, which would be incomplete and inadequately explained in any case by comparison.
That said, the first priority should be Do No Harm. I've seen many more cases where imperfect understanding of the consequences of changing the settings has caused problems, than that the default settings need to be altered. (Note: This advice does not apply to MySQL, whose defaults are pretty random IMHO.)
We have literally 100's of Access databases floating around the network. Some with light usage and some with quite heavy usage, and some no usage whatsoever. What we would like to do is centralise these databases onto a managed database and retain as much as possible of the reports and forms within them.
The benefits of doing this would be to have some sort of usage tracking, and also the ability to pay more attention to some of the important decentralised data that is stored in these apps.
There is no real constraints on RDBMS (Oracle, MS SQL server) or the stack it would run on (LAMP, ASP.net, Java) and there obviously won't be a silver bullet for this. We would like something that can remove the initial grunt work in an automated fashion.
We upsize (either using the upsize wizard or by hand) users to SQL server. It's usually pretty straight forward. Replace all the access tables with linked tables to the sql server and keep all the forms/reports/macros in access. The investment in access isn't lost and the users can keep going business as usual. You get reliability of sql server and centralized backups. Keep in mind - we’ve done this for a few large access databases, not hundreds. I'd do a pilot of a few dozen and see how it works out.
UPDATE:
I just found this, the sql server migration assitant, it might be worth a look:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/solutions/migration/default.mspx
Update: Yes, some refactoring will be necessary for poorly designed databases. As for how to handle access sprawl? I've run into this at companies with lots of technical users (engineers esp., are the worst for this... and excel sprawl). We did an audit - (after backing up) deleted any databases that hadn't been touched in over a year. "Owners" were assigned based the location &/or data in the database. If the database was in "S:\quality\test_dept" then the quality manager and head test engineer had to take ownership of it or we delete it (again after backing it up).
Upsizing an Access application is no magic bullet. It may be that some things will be faster, but some types of operations will be real dogs. That means that an upsized app has to be tested thoroughly and performance bottlenecks addressed, usually by moving the data retrieval logic server-side (views, stored procedures, passthrough queries).
It's not really an answer to the question, though.
I don't think there is any automated answer to the problem. Indeed, I'd say this is a people problem and not a programming problem at all. Somebody has to survey the network and determine ownership of all the Access databases and then interview the users to find out what's in use and what's not. Then each app should be evaluated as to whether or not it should be folded into an Enterprise-wide data store/app, or whether its original implementation as a small app for a few users was the better approach.
That's not the answer you want to hear, but it's the right answer precisely because it's a people/management problem, not a programming task.
Oracle has a migration workbench to port MS Access systems to Oracle Application Express, which would be worth investigating.
http://apex.oracle.com
So? Dedicate a server to your Access databases.
Now you have the benefit of some sort of usage tracking, and also the ability to pay more attention to some of the important decentralised data that is stored in these apps.
This is what you were going to do anyway, only you wanted to use a different database engine instead of NTFS.
And now you have to force the users onto your server.
Well, you can encourage them by telling them that you aren't going to overwrite their data with old backups anymore, because now you will own the data, and you won't do that anymore.
Also, you can tell them that their applications will run faster now, because you are going to exclude the folder from on-access virus scanning (you don't do that to your other databases, which is why they are full of sql-injection malware, but these databases won't be exposed to the internet), and planning to turn packet signing off (you won't need that on a dedicated server: it's only for people who put their file-share on their domain-server).
Easy upgrade path, improved service to users, greater centralization and control for IT. Everyone's a winner.
Further to David Fenton's comments
Your administrative rule will be something like this:
If the data that is in the database is just being used by one user, for their own work (alone), then they can keep it in their own network share.
If the data that is in the database is for being used by more than one person (even if it is only two), then that database must go on a central server and go under IT's management (backups, schema changes, interfaces, etc.). This is because, someone experienced needs to coordinate the whole show or we will risk the time/resources of the next guy down the line.
I have seen the references to VistaDB over the years and with tools like SQLite, Firebird, MS SQL et. al. I have never had a reason to consider it.
What are the benefits of paying for VistaDB vs using another technology? Things I have thought of:
1. Compact Framework Support. SQLite+MSSQL support the CF.
2. Need migration path to a 'more robust' system. Firebird+MSSQL.
3. Need more advanced features such as triggers. Firebird+MSSQL
The VistaDB client runtime is free. The runtime will never "expire at 3am" as you put it. Only the developer tools are licensed in that manner. You need 1 license per developer, simple. We even offer a really inexpensive Lite version with no Visual Studio tools.
Some other benefits
100% managed code - there are no interop or other unmanaged calls in the engine. This is a big deal to some, and others couldn't care less.
No registry access required - Most other in proc databases require registry access to look for parent controls, or permissions. VistaDB only does what you tell it to do, and will even run in Medium Trust.
XCopy deployment for runtime and your database (single file). You can xcopy you application, the runtime, and your database and run. Nothing to install or configure on the machine, no special privileges needed (we can run in Medium Trust or higher).
Isolated storage - You can put your entire database into Isolated Storage and run it from there directly. This makes it very easy to build secure click once applications that write databases in a domain friendly way for corporate environments. There is no need to store the user data on a shared drive or worry about permission mapping.
CLR Triggers / CLR Procs - You can write CLR Code and use them as Triggers or Stored Procs. We have just recently introduced changes to make it even easier to maintain a single CLR Assembly that can run in both VistaDB and SQL Server 2005/2008.
T-SQL Procs - VistaDB T-SQL Procs are compatible with SQL Server 2005/2008. Any procedure that works in our engine will run in SQL Server. That does not mean anything that runs there will port to us. We are a subset of the functionality in SQL Server. But we are also the only way to run T-SQL Procs without SQL Server (SQL CE can't do it).
I personally think one of the biggest features is the ability to upsize to SQL Server later. All of the VistaDB types, syntax, and CLR Procs, T-SQL procs, etc all will run on SQL Server. (You can't take everything from SQL Server down to VistaDB though, it is a subset)
32/64 bit Deployment - VistaDB is a single assembly deployment that runs both 32 and 64 bit without changes. SQL CE requires two different runtimes depending upon the OS, and cannot run under IIS at all. Access has no 64 bit runtime, and the most recent 32 bit runtime can only be deployed through MSI. The 32 bit version of Windows has the runtime, the 64 bit version does not.
Relational Integrity - VistaDB also actually enforces your constraints and Foreign Keys. You can specific cascade update, and delete operations. The person who commented we are like SQLITE is wrong in this regard. They parse constraints, but do not enforce them.
EDIT: They do have support for FK's now in SQLite. But they are not compiled in by default, and do not use the same syntax as SQL Server.
Medium Trust - The ability to run on a medium trust web server is another feature that many will not care about, but it is a big deal. Many third party controls can't even run in Medium Trust. We can run the complete engine within Medium Trust because of our commitment to 100% managed code and least permission required.
- Full disclosure - I am the owner of VistaDB so I may be biased. :)
Well, the main thing is that it is pure managed code - for what that is worth; it works not only on your typical Windows machines running .NET, but works wherever you run the Compact Framework and even works on Mono. Here are some noteworthy bullet points from their homepage:
Small < 1 MB footprint truly embedded ZeroClick
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 compatible data types and T-SQL syntax
None of the SQL CE limits
Single user, multi user local or using shared network.
Partially trusted shared hosting is no problem.
Royalty-free distribution - single CPU deployment of SQL Server costs more than a site license of VistaDB!
One thing worth noting is that Rob Howard's company, telligent, uses it as the default database for their new CMS software, "Graffiti."
I have played with it here and there but have yet to build anything against it.
For me this most interesting feature of VistaDB is that it can be run in Medium Trust environment. Which makes it perfect solution for creating small to medium .NET websites which can be deployed on server by copying and pasting (x-copy deployment).
And almost all windows shared hosting providers (like GoDaddy) won't let you run your websites in Full Trust mode. And also won't install for you any 3rd party binaries into GAC like System.Data.SQLite.dll if you wish to use SQLite for example.
I hadn't seen VistaDB before, it does look pretty cool.
Update: Received a comment from someone from VistaDB - their update model is only for getting new versions. Your old ones won't stop working if your license expires, which is good to know.
Keeping the original post here as IMHO the warning about expiring software licenses is still worth thinking about, even though VistaDB itself is fine.
It definitely seems 'more featureful' than SQLite, but I don't see anything there to justify the cost. The site seems to indicate that you can buy one license for $279, but it implies this is just a 1 year subscription. Would you have to then pay another $279 next year to stop your site falling over?
If so, remember to factor into the 'cost' how much inconvenience it's going to be when you get a call at 3am (murphy's law, it's always 3am) from your panicking customers because their VistaDB license has expired :-(
I've had this experience personally with some expiring software, and it's never good. You can send your customers emails and messages and flash their entire screen blinking red saying "YOU NEED TO GET A NEW LICENSE BEFORE NEXT WEEK" and they'll still never do it, and you'll still get the pain at 3am when it does expire.