Microsoft SQL Server

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

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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
   
   

   SQL

   USE master GRANT CONTROL SERVER TO apono_connector;
   

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Grant and revoke server-level roles with Apono

To use Apono for MS SQL server-level roles, you’ll need to assign the Apono connector user the securityadmin role:

SQL

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.

Read more here.

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

• AWS
• Azure
• GCP
• Kubernetes

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 Microsoft SQL Server page appears.
2. From the dropdown menu, select a connector.

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

3. Under Select resource types, select one or multiple resource types for Apono to discover in all instances of the environment.
4. Click Next. The Complete setup page appears.
5. Enter a unique, alphanumeric, user-friendly Integration Name. This name is used to identify this integration when constructing an Access Flow.
6. Enter the Hostname of the Microsoft SQL Server instance to connect.
7. (Optional) Enter the Port value for the database. By default, Apono sets this value to 1433.
8. (Optional) In the Credentials rotation period (in days) field, enter the number of days after which the database credentials must be rotated.
9. Under Secret Store, associate the secret:
   • AWS
   • Azure
   • GCP
   • Kubernetes
10. Click Connect.

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