Introduction to SQL Server

Database Administration

Tribal Data Workshop

April 10 – 11, 2018
CRITFC
Portland, Oregon
 Agenda

• Exactly what is a DBMS?

• Security Management
• Introducing SQL Server Manager System (SSMS)
• Administrative Tasks
o Creating a Table
o Adding a new user
o Quick Tutorial on Data Types
o Changing a password
o Deleting a Table
o Re-enabling a locked out account
o Setting the Primary Key
o Granting/Denying Access to a DB
o Backing Up the Database
o Granting/Denying Access to a Table
o Restoring a Full Backup
o Creating a New Database
o Database Indexes Tutorial
o Deleting a Database
o Data Encryption
Buckle Your
Seatbelt

We have a lot to cover in a relatively short

timeframe
“Relational databases form the bedrock of western civilization”

- Bruce Lindsay, IBM Research

Stanford University: CS145 materials

 A Little Vocabulary

Schema:
an underlying organizational pattern or structure;
conceptual framework

• In a database, a schema is a description of a

particular collection of data, using the given data
model
• For SQL Server, the data model is the relational
model
 What Makes Up A Relational Database (RDB)?
Logical Entities Relationship
Domain
An RDB: Model
• Is a collection of data tables
• Some tables model entities
• Some tables model relationships owns Savings
Customer
• They capture a relational model of Account
the problem domain
equivalent models

primary key foreign key foreign key primary key Savings

Customer Owns Account
CNum Name CNum SNum SNum Amount

123 John Smith 123 991 991 104.56

561 Jo Williams 561 1033 1033 5601.23

497 Sally Smith 497 567 567 908.77

Relational Domain Model

 What is a Database Management System?
Provides
services to
Contains
integrated
and
Bank DB
BI Analytics Tool DB tools
manages
and other
DBs
applications School DB
And other
which
related
process DB
objects
Reporting Tool data SQL
Server
Business DB

Hospital DB
Application

A Database Management System (DBMS) like SQL Server is

a piece of software designed to store and manage multiple RDBs
 What exactly does a DBMS manage?

• Basic responsibilities of a DBMS:

• Processes queries to provide structure access to data in DBs
• Enforces secured access to tables and other DB objects
• Provides the ability to create stored procedures, functions, and triggers
• Creates and maintains indices on columns
• Backs up and recovers the DBs
• Imports and exports data
• Creates and maintains DBs, schemas, indices, and other metadata
• Logs event information
• And much more
 Some of the “Much More”

• Tools for performance analysis, tuning, report generation, and trouble shooting
• The ability deploy high availability configurations of the DBs
• The ability to do data mirroring
• Integration with reporting, BI, and analytic tools
• Integration of R procedures into DB stored procedures
• The ability to cluster multiple DBMSs
• And still more depending on the version and brand of the DBMS

Since this is a basic course in SQL Server, these topics are not covered.
 Security Management: User, Groups, and Rights
• Access to data in table/columns is controlled by the security model
• The model is based on three kinds of entities:
• Users / Logins
• Rights / Privileges
• Groups/Roles
• The diagram below lays out the three entities used to manage and enforce DB security:

Group/Role:
• A collection of users
• Can have rights associated with it that
User/Login: users inherit with membership
• Account assigned to an individual*
• A user can belong of one or more
groups
• Can have rights specifically granted
directly to them Right/Privilege:
• Grant or deny the ability to affect a database object
(table, column, index, etc.)
• The four basic rights are listed below plus “no rights”:
• Read
• Write
• Delete
• Execute (does not apply to data entities)
*exception to this rule, account assigned to an application
 The SA

• There is a single user account “SA” (system administrator)

which is all powerful in the DBMS
• The SA:
• effectively “owns” the DBMS
• has all rights to control all entities in DBMS
• and is therefore a very dangerous account (more later)
 Access Security Example
A DB table:
Customer
has no explicit right
CNum Name
SA assigned to him for
the table has no rights
123 John Smith assigned to him
Tom
561 Jo Williams Belongs to
497 Sally Smith

has read and write

rights for Customer

Finance Dept Group

Maggie Pop Quiz

Who can write to the table?
Jim has the read right for Who can delete the table?
has read and write Customer Who could query data for a report?
rights for Customer
 • Some Best Practices for Security

• Beware the SA account!

• This account can overwrite or delete anything in the DBMS – this includes metadata
the DBMS must have to function correctly
• We’re all human and can make mistakes, mistakes by the SA can destroy the DBMS
• So, DON’T log into the SA account unless you must be in it to get a task done
• And, once you finish the task(s), log out immediately!
• Grant users as few rights as possible -- this is preventative medicine to avoid mistakes
• Groups are a good way to assign rights
• Groups often map well to organization units (i.e., departments, project teams)
• People in the same group often need exactly or mostly the same rights
• If a group needs to have its rights adjusted you only have to adjust the group not all
the users individually – great time saver
 SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) Console
tool bar

object
connection bar properties
server object being displayed

server contents

SSMS comes
with SQL Server
 Don’t Panic!

• Since this is a beginning course, we are

only going to concentrate on:
• Databases
• Security
• For basic applications, these are the
only two areas you need to do work in
• Others areas could be part of a more
advanced course -- maybe next year
 1. Click on “General” to Adding a New User (Login)
get this form
Dropdown Security and Right
click on Logins>New Login
from the dropdown menu
Sally
that appears

3a. Choose
login type 2. Type name
for new Login

3b. If you choose

SQL login, these
fields become
typeable and you
are required to
fill them in

Ignore
Ignore
these 4. Click this
thesefields
for now when you are
fields
done entering
data
 Changing a Password

2. When window opens, type in new

password and the confirmation
1. Drop down Security->Logins
and double click on the account
needing to be reset

3. Then click OK and

window closes
 Re-enabling a Locked Out User Account

You can also dis/enable

an account on this page
2. Click on “Status”

3. Click on “Enabled”

1. Drop down Security->Logins

and double click on the account
needing to be reset

4. Click on “Okay”
 Granting/Denying Access to a DB

2. Click on “User Mapping”

3. Check the box by the DB you

want to give access rights to

1. Drop down Security->Logins

and double click on the account
needing to be reset

4. Check the boxes by the types of

access you want to grant (or uncheck
to remove right)

5. Click “OK” to adjust the rights

 Granting/Denying Access to a Specific Table

2. Click on Permissions

3. Click on search

1. Drop down Tables, click on table

name, right click and select “Properties
 Granting/Denying Access to a Specific Table (cont)

4. Click on browse
5. Check the box next to user you
want to adjust table permissions for

6. Click “OK”
 Granting/Denying Access to a Specific Table (cont)

8. Click “OK”

9. Adjust permissions with

check boxes and click “OK”
 SQL: Grant and Deny

• Security objects can have their characteristics modified directly by using T-SQL
• See commands:
• GRANT
• DENY
• CREATE ROLE
• ALTER ROLE
• DELETE ROLE
• Examples can be found in the documentation
• This allows you to write scripts or functions to carry out security adjustments
• See T-SQL reference at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/language-reference
Note: you can only create a database if Creating a New Database
you have been given the right to do so

Ignore these
two options
2. Type name for
new database 3. This can remain <default>

1. Click on Databases >New Database

4. Just leave these at

default values for now

This creates a DB that is essentially

an empty container. Columns 5. Click on “OK” and database will
be created (don’t click on “Add)
added in a separate operation
 Deleting a Database
Note: you can only delete a database if
you have been given the right to do so

1. Right click on the database

you want to delete

2. Select “Delete” from

the dropdown menu
 Creating a Table

Table editor opens in workspace.

1. Dropdown the Customer, click on

Tables>New
 Creating a Table (cont)

1. On toolbar, click on
View>Properties Window

2. On right edge of screen, the

Properties window displays and
shows properties of new table
 Creating a Table (cont)

1. For each row:

• Enter a name then tab
• Select a data type from dropdown
• Optionally, check box to allow null values
2. Enter the name of
A new row will appear below the one just the new table here
created. Enter as many rows as required
 Creating a Table (cont)

On the toolbar, dropdown

the File menu and click on
“Save Table_1” (actual new
table name will appear)
 Details: Entering a New Column

1. Type in
column name

2. Select data type by

dropping down menu 3. Indicate if null values are acceptable

NOTE: be precise in your selection of data type, it can

drastically affect how much storage a DB takes
 Quick Tutorial on Data Types

Ignore

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling
of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. Not needed in CRITFC at this time.
 Quick Tutorial on Data Types (cont)
Consider the following examples:
• Need to store the number 10,234,443.22
• Store as char(13): 13 bytes = 10 numeric character and 3 punctuations
• Store as float: 4 bytes (but only 7 significant digits -- loss of precision)
• Store as float(53): 8 bytes (15 significant digits – no loss of precision)
• Store as char(50): 13 bytes + 37 unused bytes -- wasted

• Need to store the string “John Jerry Smith” (16 characters)

• Store as char(256): 16 bytes + 240 unused bytes
• Store as vchar(20): 16 bytes + 2 bytes
• Store as vchar(MAX): 16 bytes + 2 bytes

• So, imagine XYZ’s customer database has 4,000,000 customer names averaging 16
characters. What are the storage demands?:
• For char(256): 4x106 * 256 = 1.024x109
• For vchar(20): not feasible, some names are over 20 characters
• For vchar(MAX): 4x106 * 18 = 72x106 (only 7% of the char(256) size)

• So, choice of data type matters especially for large data bases
• It affects disk space requirements
• It also can have a large effect on performance so chose types with care
 Tips on Selecting Types
• Do not store Boolean values as the words “true”/”false”, use the bit data type
• If the exact size a string column should be fixed (example: customer id), use char(n) where n is
the size
• If a field will hold a monetary value, use smallmoney or money depending on how large
number will be
• If a string field will vary in length use varchar(n) where n is the maximum size it can be
• If you need a floating point number and the value is in the range +/- 2*109 and it has 7 or
fewer significant digit use float
• If you need a floating point number and the value is outside of the range +/- 2*109 or it has 8
or more significant digits use real(53)
• If the field holds a time, use time
• If the field holds a date, use date
• If the field holds a timestamp, use timestamp
• If the field holds a date and time use datetime
• If the field holds an integer < +/- 32,768 use a smallint
• If the field holds an integer between +/- 32,768 and +/- 2,147,483,648 use int
• If the field holds an integer between +/- 2,147,483,648 and +/- 9,223,372,036,854,775,808
use bigint
• If the field holds an integer > +/- 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 you are out of luck (or resort to
real(53) but you will loose accuracy)
 Note: adding, modifying, or deleting a table is only
possible is you have been granted rites to do so
Deleting a Table

Click on the table you want to

delete to dropdown menu and
select “Delete”
 Setting the Primary Key
1. Click on the row to be the key and it highlights in
blue. Right click on the triangle to the left of the
column name.
2. Dropdown appears, select “Set Primary Key”

3. Key icon appears in that row

 Backing Up the DBMS

• Backups are a very critical activity in the administration of a DBMS

• If some corruption were to occur in the DBMS (and this sometimes happens), restoring the
DBMS from a backup is the only remedy
• Backups should be scheduled to run automatically daily
• At least weekly, a complete backup should be stored at a secure remote site
• It is critical that backup media be tested regularly by doing a “practice” restore
• Backup media degrades over time
• Problems with the devices used to create the backup can result in corrupt backup media
• It is now possible to backup directly into the cloud
• Avoids using media like tape, backup is from local disk to cloud disk
• In AWS, all data is automatically backed up – so this is a good secure remote backup
strategy
• CRITFC is going run a POC of this possibility this year and share out the approach and
findings
 Backup Strategies

• Backups are usually run in the dead of the night when they do not negatively
affect machine performance for users
• The most straightforward strategy is to backup the entire DBMS each night
• Unfortunately, this is not always possible
• A very large DBMS might take too many hours to complete overnight
• Some corporations have world wide operations so there is no “dead” time
• A common strategy is to use incremental backups
 Backup Strategies (cont)
Complete Backup Incremental Backup

The entire DBMS is backed up in one fell swoop The entire DBMS is backed up once a week (over
weekend likely). The other six days an
incremental backup is made capturing only the
things that changed during the last 24 hours.
This is a very common backup strategy.
• Advantages
• Only have to restore a single file
• Disadvantages • Advantages
• Can take a very long time to complete • Incremental backups can be pretty fast
backup • Disadvantages
• First must restore weekly complete backup
and then all the incremental backups to
date
• Potentially longer recovery
 Proviso

Backup and restore is actually a deeply technical subject and we just

cannot do it justice in the time available, so:
• We are going to present the most straightforward cases of a full
backup and recovery
• The next workshop on advanced SQL will delve a little deeper into
the subject
• If people still want more, we can always dive deep in the next
workshop
 How to do A Full Backup

1. Click on the DB
you wish to backup

2. Click on Tasks

3. Click on BackUp
 How to do A Full Backup (cont)

1. Check DB name is right

2. Select “Full” from the
dropdown menu

3. Make sure Database

is selected
4. Choose “Disk” on the
dropdown menu

5. Click on “Add” and enter path to

file the backup will be put in
 How to do A Full Backup (cont)

1. Click on “Backup Options”

2. Enter descriptive name for backup file

also “Description” should be filled out

3. Select “After” or “On”

and enter appropriate data

4. Ignore encryption
for now

5. Click on “OK” when done.

Backup is now configured.
 To Know More

For more in depth information on backups go to this page:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-
databases/backup-restore/create-a-full-database-backup-sql-
server
 Restoring a Full Backup

1. Select DB to
restore and right
click

2. Click on “Tasks”

3. Select
Restore>Database
 Restoring a Full Backup

1. Make sure the

right DB is specified

2. Check the
destination DB
and the “restore
to” datetime

Optionally: click on
“Timeline” and
adjust what time
you want to restore
to
 Adjusting Recovery Timeline

You can adjust date

and time in these
fields

The Timeline
Interval is a
graphical depiction
Backup activities.
Use it to decide
what point to
restore up to

Pop Quiz
Why might you want not to restore entire backup?
 Restoring a Full Backup

When you are ready for restore to

begin, click here
 To Know More

Go to:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/backup-
restore/restore-a-database-backup-using-ssms
 One More Thing

Backup and recovery can be completely controlled by writing SQL scripts

 What is a database index?

A database index is a data structure that improves the

speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at
the cost of additional writes and storage space to maintain
the index data structure
• The diagram below represents an index structure How Indexes Work
• This structure-type is known as a “btree”
• The index is maintained by the DBMS as an object separate from the DB

Data Node
< = 30

16

Rows in
row row row row row
data table

What row has the key value 16?

 Indexing
Indexes are key to having a performant DB. Why? Consider example below:

• Suppose you have a table with a column called UCustId (unique customer id) where it
is guaranteed to each and every ID in the column is unique
• Let’s say you have a million customers – so one million rows of data
• You need to find the customer with id 789536
• With a straightforward linear search your worst case scenario is what you want to find
is in the last row and you have to look at each record in the table to find it which
means one million comparisons
• If you build an index on UCustId you worst case is that you have to look at about
log(1,000,000) or 6 comparisons
• If each comparison takes 1 ms (10-3s) the linear search case takes 1000 sec or 16.7 min
to run
• The indexed search takes 6 s or .1 m do it - so it is 167 times faster
• Conclusion: critical data searched often needs to be indexed
• Good example of columning needing an index: primary keys on tables
 The Costs Associated with Indexing
• Indexing is not for free
• It can take quite a while to build an index and table may unavailable during at
least part of the time it is being built
• Each time a row is added or removed (and sometimes just modified) the
index has to be updated as well as the table and it can be costly
• Indexes require regular maintenance, i.e., running a defragmentation utility
on them or even rebuilding them with different constraints
• Even with indexes, very large tables may have performance problems and
other actions may need to be taken to reach DB performance goals
• Indexes sometimes go corrupt and have to be rebuilt – which can adversely
affect production while this happens
• When indexes go corrupt, it sometimes can be very hard to diagnose this as
the root cause
• When queries include some kind of string pattern matching, indexes
sometimes cannot be used and the query defaults to linear search
 A Few Indexing Guidelines

• Small databases probably don’t need indexes

• Small tables in a DB of any size don’t need indexes
• Example: a table that holds the 25 car colors available for the Chevy F10 pickup
• Primary keys in large tables (> 100,000) definitely need indexes (primary keys are
normally unique)
• Foreign keys that are used frequently in WHERE clauses or other clauses will
benefit from an index
• Columns other the primary or foreign keys in very large tables that are commonly
referenced in WHERE or other clauses can benefit from indexes
 Creating An Index

1. Right click on the DB

Customer>Tables>dbo.CustDef>I
ndexes>New Index>Clustered
Index
 Creating An Index (cont)

2. Click on the “Add” button

3. When the form appears, click

in the box next to CustID 4. Click “OK”
 Creating An Index (cont)

New index appears in Indexes folder

 Data Encryption

• Beyond users, rites, and passwords another form of data protection is encryption
• SQL Server can encrypt at two levels:
• You can encrypt individual columns in a table
• You can encrypt an entire database (requires SQL Server 2017 Enterprise Edition)
• Is the encryption easy to crack?

Breaking a symmetric 256-bit key by brute force requires

2128 times more computational power than a 128-bit key.
Fifty supercomputers that could check a billion billion (1018)
AES keys per second (if such a device could ever be made)
would, in theory, require about 3×1051 years to exhaust the
256-bit key space. Wikipedia

• Encryption is complex subject and we do not have the time to get deep
into this today. It could be the subject of a separate seminar later.

NOTE: the age of the universe is estimated to be about 13.7 billion (13.7 * 109) years…
That’s all folks!