Business Data Connectivity Service - sharepoint

I am reading this article:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj683108.aspx
On step 6b it says to:
In the Database area, leave the prepopulated values for Database Server, Database Name, and Database authentication, which is Windows authentication (recommended) unless you have specific design needs to change them.
However my question on that is the prepopulated values for the database server is Sharepoint. why would I want that as a default if I am trying to set up an external database for external content types?
I want to make sure my understanding is correct before I make a change at this high level of SharePoint

The document you are referring to is about setting up BDC service. The database mentioned in step 6 is not the database containing the external data but internal database of BDC service that will hold the configuration data of the service.
Setting up new connection for particular data source is another step (following the BDC service setup). You can definitely connect to remote servers.

Related

How to disallow users from accessing the application database when offering VM Image on Azure Marketplace?

I would like to publish an image of a generalized VM on the Azure Marketplace. The VM for which the image is to be created includes an ASP.NET MVC Application which connects to a local SQL Server.
I would like to disallow access to my application's database to the users who create VMs from the offered image, so that they would not be able to see the stored procedures inside the database.
I was considering to disable Windows Authentication to the SQL server and adding a superadmin user who could access the server. However, in this case I would need to place the username and password of the superadmin user inside my web.config file thus making it visible to all users.
Are there any other possible solutions for restricting access to an application's database or more specifically the stored procedures in the database, when offering the application on a VM image?
that wouldnt help, you can always force your way into sql server (since you control the vm). so this makes little sense really.
You can try to encrypt your stored procedures as shown below, but there are some third-party tools that can decrypt it.
CREATE PROCEDURE YourSP_WithEncryption WITH ENCRYPTION
AS
BEGIN
-- START: Proprietary Business Logic
--
--
--
--
-- END: Proprietary Business Logic
SELECT 'From ENCRYPTED Stored Procedure'
END
GO
Alternatively, there are some third-party tools like SqlShield that can provide hacker-proof encryption to your stored procedures. It can also encrypt views and triggers.

Unable to create Easy Tables in Azure

I have created a Mobile App and Database in Microsoft Azure. Now I am trying to create Easy Tables from Mobile App but I am getting error message "You need database to use East Tables. Click here to create one.
Even though I have existing database Easy Tables doesn't list it.
Below is the screenshot.
I have mapped Data Connection with mobile app, below is the screenshot
It would be great if anyone can help, I am new to azure.
Your connection string must be created with name: MS_TableConnectionString
Just because you have a database doesn't mean it is linked. Click on Data Connections, then Add, then add your existing SQL database.
Note that Easy Tables won't recognize the existing tables unless you add them through Easy Tables. There are notes around the format of Id (it needs to be
a string) and other fields.
When you created your Database Server did you check "Allow azure services to access server"? That could be why you cannot see the Database listed.

Accidently Deleted Contents of Azure Mobile Service table

I was deleting a single record in the Classic Azure Portal in Mobile Services Browse. The entire contents of the table has now disappeared. Please help!!! How do I restore the contents. The table and scripts are still there.
I have gone into the SQL database tab and clicked restore from point in time, this creates a new DB but does not give me an option to restore to Azure mobile services.
Restoring a database always creates a new database on the same server as the original database, so the restored database must be given a new name. Once complete, the restored database is a normal fully accessible online database charged at normal rates based on its service tier and performance level. If you are restoring the database for recovery purposes you can treat the restored database as a replacement for the original database, or use it to retrieve data from and then update the original database. Please check this article for details.
So if you are going to use the new database, you can re-configure your mobile service to use the new database as following snapshot shows(click the mobile service, go to configure tab then click change database):

Dynamic Data Source at run time based on Active Directory account

I have a set of SSRS reports that I want to provide access to multiple customers. Each customer has their own database. There is a shared data source that all the reports access. Each customer's database has identical schema/objects, only the data is different. Each customer has an Active Directory login.
Is there a way for the Shared Data Source to dynamically change which database it connects to based on the user accessing the report? Is there a way using SSRS integrated with Sharepoint?
The only other solution I've seen is passing in the Server/Database as parameters, which would require an application and use of the web service.
Sharepoint Mode might offer some (AD) authentication and datasource stuff I don't know about, but you could combine the parameter solution you mention with the [%UserId] global, and build a connection dynamically based on it.
Here's an alternative solution with a single source report, deployed once per client:
create one report folder per database
use a shared data source, one per database (located in that folder)
on first deploy, configure the data source connection for each database
set OverwriteDatasources to false
set up a deployment process (using multiple configurations, or perhaps a script) that deploys the source report to all customer folders
update your site so each user gets to see a report from the corresponding customer folder

Backing up and restoring a sharepoint content database across two machines, hosed my sharepoint app

I have sharepoint sites provisioned on two machines A and B. I would like to take the content database from machine A and restore it into the site on machine B.
I used SQL backup to backup machine A's database, and restored it to machine B, overwriting the existing content database. However, my sharepoint site became unreachable - I would get a generic site not found error. Did I also have to back up and restore SharePoint_Config database too?
What is the best practices for this kind of scenario?
You need to tell sharepoint where your new database is. just go to the content database management page on central administration. there you will see your previous database mapped to the web application. remove it and and the new database. it will map the web app to it and your sites will come back. be careful when entering the server and database name, as you could create a new db instead of connecting to the existing one if you mistype the name

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