Microsoft SQL Server

Create an integration to manage access to a Microsoft SQL Server database

Microsoft SQL Server is a reliable and secure relational database management system. It can be used as the main data store for various applications, websites, and products.

Microsoft enables developers to create cloud-hosted SQL Server databases.

Through this integration, Apono helps you securely manage access to your Microsoft SQL Server database.

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Prerequisites

Item	Description
Apono Connector	On-prem connection serving as a bridge between a Microsoft SQL Server database instance and Apono: AWS Azure GCP Kubernetes
Microsoft SQL Server Info	Information for the database instance to be integrated: Hostname Port number

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Create a Microsoft SQL Server user

You must create a user in your Microsoft SQL Server instance for the Apono connector.

Use the following steps to create a user and grant it permissions to your databases:

1. In your preferred client tool, create a new user. Be sure to set a strong password for the user.

The password must be a minimum of 8 characters and include characters from at least three of these four categories:

• Uppercase letters

• Lowercase letters

• Digits (0-9)

• Symbols

CREATE LOGIN apono_connector WITH PASSWORD = 'password';

2. Expose databases to the user. This allows Apono to view database names without accessing the contents of each database.

GRANT VIEW ANY DATABASE TO apono_connector;

3. Grant the ALTER ANY LOGIN database permissions to the user in all the databases.

 USE master GRANT ALTER ANY LOGIN TO apono_connector;

4. Grant the user ADMIN permissions: Allows Apono to grant users administrative-level access, including the ability to execute and drop tables\

USE master GRANT CONTROL SERVER TO apono_connector;

Grant and revoke server-level roles with Apono

To use Apono for MS SQL server-level roles, you must assign the Apono connector user the securityadmin role.

USE master ALTER SERVER ROLE securityadmin ADD MEMBER server_principal

Members of the securityadmin fixed server role can GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE server-level permissions. They can also GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE database-level permissions if they have access to a database. Additionally, they can reset passwords for SQL Server logins.

5. Using the credentials from step 1, create a secret for the database instance.

You can now integrate Microsoft SQL Server.

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Integrate Microsoft SQL Server

Follow these steps to complete the integration:

1. On the Catalog tab, click Microsoft SQL Server. The Connect Integration page appears.

2. Under Discovery, click one or more resource types to sync with Apono.

Apono automatically discovers and syncs all the instances in the environment. After syncing, you can manage access flow to these resources.

3. Click Next. The Apono connector section expands.

4. From the dropdown menu, select a connector. Choosing a connector links Apono to all the services available on the account where the connector is located.

If the desired connector is not listed, click + Add new connector and follow the instructions for creating a connector (AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes).

5. Click Next. The Integration Config section expands.

6. Define the Integration Config settings.

   Setting	Description
   Integration Name	Unique, alphanumeric, user-friendly name used to identify this integration when constructing an access flow
   Hostname	Hostname of the Microsoft SQL Server instance to connect
   Port	Port value for the instance By default, Apono sets this value to 1433.
   Database Name	Name of the database By default, Apono sets this value to master.
7. Click Next. The Secret Store section expands.

8. Associate the secret or credentials.

9. Click Next. The Get more with Apono section expands.

10. Define the Get more with Apono settings.

    Setting	Description
    Credential Rotation	(Optional) Number of days after which the database credentials must be rotated
    Custom Access Details	(Optional) Instructions explaining how to access this integration's resources Upon accessing an integration, a message with these instructions will be displayed to end users in the User Portal. The message may include up to 400 characters. To view the message as it appears to end users, click Preview. NOTE: You can also add the custom_access_details parameter to the apono_integration schema using Terraform. For more information, learn how to integrate with Apono in the Terraform Registry.
    Integration Owner	(Optional) Fallback approver if no resource owner is found Follow these steps to define one or several integration owners: From the Attribute dropdown menu, select User or Group under the relevant identity provider (IdP) platform. From the Value dropdown menu, select one or multiple users or groups. NOTE: When Resource Owner is defined, an Integration Owner must be defined.
    Resource Owner	(Optional) Group or role responsible for managing access approvals or rejections for the resource Follow these steps to define one or several resource owners: Enter a Key name. This value is the name of the tag created in your cloud environment. From the Attribute dropdown menu, select an attribute under the IdP platform to which the key name is associated. Apono will use the value associated with the key (tag) to identify the resource owner. When you update the membership of the group or role in your IdP platform, this change is also reflected in Apono. NOTE: When this setting is defined, an Integration Owner must also be defined.
11. Click Confirm.

Now that you have completed this integration, you can create access flows that grant permission to your Microsoft SQL Server database.