MSSQL - Create an alias name for a database - sql-server

Question

I am using MSSQL 2014 and I am having troubles fulfilling one request from DB admin regarding the security.
Our solution contains several databases (on the same server) with stored procedures in them that have joins between the tables of two or more databases. We have one user that has same rights on all databases.
Very simplified example: one database contains Articles while the other one contains Prices, queries need to get Articles with their Prices. Queries have INNER JOIN-s between tables in those two databases.
After deployment of the solution on our client's test environment, I talked to client's DB admin and he asked me to modify the databases and users to match some of their standards. Those standards include different database names on different environments as well as one separate user per database.
If I did changed database names and users in my current solution, stored procedures would return errors due to invalid database names or invalid credentials. I asked that admin how they solved such problem in their environment and his answer was that they create database links. After googling for the solution, I found out that Oracle has CREATE DATABASE LINK option, but there is nothing similar in MSSQL (except maybe linked servers feature, but that does not solve my problem).
What I am looking for is something similar to Oracle's CREATE DATABASE LINK in MSSQL 2014, some solution that would allow execution of stored procedures without need to change the queries, but rather to create 'alias' of the databases that need to be renamed.
Does anyone have an idea how I could do this?

Answer 1

I just searched msdn
CREATE SYNONYM (Transact-SQL)
I know link only answers are frowned upon but that is the answer and msdn is not going away

Answer 2

not sure if this can be an answer but it is too long to fit a comment...
there is no tech detail in your question so i'm making a huge wild guess but maybe the problem could be avoided using many schema instead of many databases.
that way all your objects would belong to the same database and there will be no need to make cross-database calls.
obviously this solution may not fit your situation, be not applicable because of [your long list of reason here] and would also require changes whose impact cannot be estimated reading a post on SO... ^^
as a side note the customer is not always right; if they have a policy that relies upon a specific oracle feature they cannot expect to enforce that very same policy on a different rdbms that lack the feature.
actually they may expect to do so but is your job to 'educate' them (or at least try to!).
anyway if the policy is mandatory then they will be happy to pay for the extra effort required to comply, isn't it?

Answer 3

Starting with the obvious I think you should explain the client that although there is more than one physical database it is in fact the very same database split apart and used by the very same product. Make it clear that this shouldn't be considered like a breach in their standard.
If you can not convince them then you have to deal with two problems : different user/login and different database name.
Different user/login : You can solve this with a linked server. Linked servers aren't only for different servers or different instances, you can create a "local" linked server that will use a different login.
EXEC sp_addlinkedserver
#server='yourAlias',
#srvproduct='SQL_SERVER',
#provider='yourServer\yourInstance',
#dataSrc = 'yourDatabaseXYZ'
GO
You can easily modify the credentials used by the linked server you've just created :
In SQL Server Management Studio, open Object Explorer, expand Server Objects and ight-click the new linked servers you just created;
On the Security page specify the login you want to use.
Different database name : The only solution I can came up with is to create a SYNONYM for every object in the database. This is something others people seems to have done before and although it is not something funny it seems very doable. You can have a look here for a complete solution.
Of course you can use a SYNONYM on a linked server resource. Something like :
CREATE SYNONYM yourTable FOR [yourAlias].yourDatabaseXYZ.schemaABC.yourTable
And then you will be able to do :
-- Transparent usage of a table from another database with different credentials
SELECT * FROM yourTable;
By the way, there is a feature request to Microsoft to Allow CREATE SYNONYM for database. Maybe you'd like to upvote it
Final note :
To avoid problem like this, and like Blam also mentionned, you should consider not hardcoding the database name in your application.