Module 1: SQL Server Security Protection of data
within your Microsoft SQL Server databases is essential and
requires a working knowledge of the issues and SQL Server security
features. This module describes SQL Server security models, logins,
users, partially contained databases, and cross-server
authorization.
Lessons
- Authenticating Connections to SQL Server
- Authorizing Logins to Connect to databases
- Authorization Across Servers
- Partially Contained Databases
Lab: Authenticating Users
- Create Logins
- Create Database Users
- Correct Application Login Issues
- Configure Security for Restored Databases
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- SQL Server basic concepts.
- SQL Server connection authentication.
- User login authorization to databases.
- Partially contained databases.
- Authorization across servers.
Module 2: Assigning Server and Database Roles
Using roles simplifies the management of user permissions. With
roles, you can control authenticated users’ access to system
resources based on each user’s job function—rather than assigning
permissions user-by-user, you can grant permissions to a role, then
make users members of roles. Microsoft SQL Server includes support
for security roles defined at server level and at database level.
Lessons
- Working with server roles
- Working with Fixed Database Roles
- Assigning User-Defined Database Roles
Lab: Assigning server and database roles
- Assigning Server Roles
- Assigning Fixed Database Roles
- Assigning User-Defined Database Roles
- Verifying Security
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe and use server roles to manage server-level
security.
- Describe and use fixed database roles.
- Use custom database roles and application roles to manage
database-level security.
Module 3: Authorizing Users to Access Resources In
the previous modules, you have seen how Microsoft SQL Server
security is organized and how sets of permissions can be assigned
at the server and database level by using fixed server roles,
user-defined server roles, fixed database roles, and application
roles. The final step in authorizing users to access SQL Server
resources is the authorization of users and roles to access server
and database objects. In this module, you will see how these object
permissions are managed. In addition to access permissions on
database objects, SQL Server provides the ability to determine
which users are allowed to execute code, such as stored procedures
and functions. In many cases, these permissions and the permissions
on the database objects are best configured at the schema level
rather than at the level of the individual object. Schema-based
permission grants can simplify your security architecture. You will
explore the granting of permissions at the schema level in the
final lesson of this module.
Lessons
- Authorizing User Access to Objects
- Authorizing Users to Execute Code
- Configuring Permissions at the Schema Level
Lab: Authorizing users to access resources
- Granting, Denying, and Revoking Permissions on Objects
- Granting EXECUTE Permissions on Code
- Granting Permissions at the Schema Level
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Authorize user access to objects.
- Authorize users to execute code.
- Configure permissions at the schema level.
Module 4: Protecting Data with Encryption and
Auditing When configuring security for your Microsoft SQL
Server systems, you should ensure that you meet any of your
organization’s compliance requirements for data protection.
Organizations often need to adhere to industry-specific compliance
policies, which mandate auditing of all data access. To address
this requirement, SQL Server provides a range of options for
implementing auditing. Another common compliance requirement is the
encryption of data to protect against unauthorized access in the
event that access to the database files is compromised. SQL Server
supports this requirement by providing transparent data encryption
(TDE). To reduce the risk of information leakage by users with
administrative access to a database, columns containing sensitive
data—such as credit card numbers or national identity numbers—can
be encrypted using the Always Encrypted feature. This module
describes the available options for auditing in SQL Server, how to
use and manage the SQL Server Audit feature, and how to implement
encryption.
Lessons
- Options for auditing data access in SQL Server
- Implementing SQL Server Audit
- Managing SQL Server Audit
- Protecting Data with Encryption
Lab: Using Auditing and Encryption
- Working with SQL Server Audit
- Encrypt a Column as Always Encrypted
- Encrypt a Database using TDE
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe the options for auditing data access.
- Implement SQL Server Audit.
- Manage SQL Server Audit.
- Describe and implement methods of encrypting data in SQL
Server.
- Implement encryption
Module 5: Recovery Models and Backup Strategies
One of the most important aspects of a database administrator's
role is ensuring that organizational data is reliably backed up so
that, if a failure occurs, you can recover the data. Even though
the computing industry has known about the need for reliable backup
strategies for decades—and discussed this at great
length—unfortunate stories regarding data loss are still
commonplace. A further problem is that, even when the strategies in
place work as they were designed, the outcomes still regularly fail
to meet an organization’s operational requirements. In this module,
you will consider how to create a strategy that is aligned with
organizational needs, based on the available backup models, and the
role of the transaction logs in maintaining database consistency.
Lessons
- Understanding Backup Strategies
- SQL Server Transaction Logs
- Planning Backup Strategies
Lab: Understanding SQL Server recovery models
- Plan a Backup Strategy
- Configure Database Recovery Models
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe various backup strategies.
- Describe how database transaction logs function.
- Plan SQL Server backup strategies.
Module 6: Backing Up SQL Server Databases In the
previous module, you learned how to plan a backup strategy for a
SQL Server system. You can now learn how to perform SQL Server
backups, including full and differential database backups,
transaction log backups, and partial backups. In this module, you
will learn how to apply various backup strategies.
Lessons
- Backing Up Databases and Transaction Logs
- Managing Database Backups
- Advanced Database Options
Lab: Backing Up Databases
- Backing Up Databases
- Performing Database, Differential, and Transaction Log
Backups
- Performing a Partial Backup
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Perform backups of SQL Server databases and transaction
logs.
- Manage database backups.
- Describe advanced backup options.
Module 7: Restoring SQL Server 2016 Databases In
the previous module, you learned how to create backups of Microsoft
SQL Server 2016 databases. A backup strategy might involve many
different types of backup, so it is essential that you can
effectively restore them. You will often be restoring a database in
an urgent situation. You must, however, ensure that you have a
clear plan of how to proceed and successfully recover the database
to the required state. A good plan and understanding of the restore
process can help avoid making the situation worse. Some database
restores are related to system failure. In these cases, you will
want to return the system as close as possible to the state it was
in before the failure. Some failures, though, are related to human
error and you might wish to recover the system to a point before
that error. The point-in-time recovery features of SQL Server 2016
can help you to achieve this. Because they are typically much
larger, user databases are more likely to be affected by system
failures than system databases. However, system databases can be
affected by failures, and special care should be taken when
recovering them. In particular, you need to understand how to
recover each system database because you cannot use the same
process for all system databases. In this module, you will see how
to restore user and system databases and how to implement
point-in-time recovery.
Lessons
- Understanding the Restore Process
- Restoring Databases
- Advanced Restore Scenarios
- Point-in-Time Recovery
Lab: Restoring SQL Server Databases
- Restoring a Database Backup
- Restring Database, Differential, and Transaction Log
Backups
- Performing a Piecemeal Restore
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Explain the restore process.
- Restore databases.
- Perform advanced restore operations.
- Perform a point-in-time recovery.
Module 8: Automating SQL Server Management The
tools provided by Microsoft SQL Server make administration easy
when compared to some other database engines. However, even when
tasks are easy to perform, it is common to have to repeat a task
many times. Efficient database administrators learn to automate
repetitive tasks. This can help to avoid situations where an
administrator forgets to execute a task at the required time.
Perhaps more importantly, the automation of tasks helps to ensure
that they are performed consistently, each time they are executed.
This module describes how to use SQL Server Agent to automate jobs,
how to configure security contexts for jobs, and how to implement
multiserver jobs.
Lessons
- Automating SQL Server management
- Working with SQL Server Agent
- Managing SQL Server Agent Jobs
- Multi-server Management
Lab: Automating SQL Server Management
- Create a SQL Server Agent Job
- Test a Job
- Schedule a Job
- Configure Master and Target Servers
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe methods for automating SQL Server Management.
- Configure jobs, job step types, and schedules.
- Manage SQL Server Agent jobs.
- Configure master and target servers.
Module 9: Configuring Security for SQL Server
Agent Other modules in this course have demonstrated the
need to minimize the permissions that are granted to users,
following the principle of “least privilege.” This means that users
have only the permissions that they need to perform their tasks.
The same logic applies to the granting of permissions to SQL Server
Agent. Although it is easy to execute all jobs in the context of
the SQL Server Agent service account, and to configure that account
as an administrative account, a poor security environment would
result from doing this. It is important to understand how to create
a minimal privilege security environment for jobs that run in SQL
Server Agent.
Lessons
- Understanding SQL Server Agent Security
- Configuring Credentials
- Configuring Proxy Accounts
Lab: Configuring Security for SQL Server Agent
- Analyzing Problems in SQL Server Agent
- Configuring a Credential
- Configuring a Proxy Account
- Configuring and testing the Security Context of a Job
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Explain SQL Server Agent security.
- Configure credentials.
- Configure proxy accounts.
Module 10: Monitoring SQL Server with Alerts and
Notifications One key aspect of managing Microsoft SQL
Server in a proactive manner is to make sure you are aware of
problems and events that occur in the server, as they happen. SQL
Server logs a wealth of information about issues. You can configure
it to advise you automatically when these issues occur, by using
alerts and notifications. The most common way that SQL Server
database administrators receive details of events of interest is by
email message. This module covers the configuration of Database
Mail, alerts, and notifications for a SQL Server instance, and the
configuration of alerts for Microsoft Azure SQL Database.
Lessons
- Monitoring SQL Server Errors
- Configuring Database Mail
- Operators, Alerts, and Notifications
- Alerts in Azure SQL Database
Lab: Monitoring SQL Server with Alerts and
Notifications
- Configuring Database Mail
- Configuring Operators
- Configuring Alerts and Notifications
- Testing Alerts and Notifications
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Monitor SQL Server errors.
- Configure database mail.
- Configure operators, alerts, and notifications.
- Work with alerts in Azure SQL Database.
Module 11: Introduction to Managing SQL Server by using
PowerShell This module looks at how to use Windows
PowerShell with Microsoft SQL Server. Businesses are constantly
having to increase the efficiency and reliability of maintaining
their IT infrastructure; with PowerShell, you can improve this
efficiency and reliability by creating scripts to carry out tasks.
PowerShell scripts can be tested and applied multiple times to
multiple servers, saving your organization both time and money.
Lessons
- Getting Started with Windows PowerShell
- Configure SQL Server using PowerShell
- Administer and Maintain SQL Server with PowerShell
- Managing Azure SQL Databases using PowerShell
Lab: Using PowerShell to Manage SQL Server
- Getting Started with PowerShell
- Using PowerShell to Change SQL Server settings
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe the benefits of PowerShell and its fundamental
concepts.
- Configure SQL Server by using PowerShell.
- Administer and maintain SQL Server by using PowerShell.
- Manage an Azure SQL Database by using PowerShell.
Module 12: Tracing Access to SQL Server with Extended
events Monitoring performance metrics provides a great way
to assess the overall performance of a database solution. However,
there are occasions when you need to perform more detailed analysis
of the activity occurring within a Microsoft SQL Server instance—to
troubleshoot problems and identify ways to optimize workload
performance. SQL Server Extended Events is a flexible, lightweight
event-handling system built into the Microsoft SQL Server Database
Engine. This module focuses on the architectural concepts,
troubleshooting strategies and usage scenarios of Extended Events.
Lessons
- Extended Events Core Concepts
- Working with Extended Events
Lab: Extended Events
- Using the System_Health Extended Events Session
- Tracking Page Splits Using Extended Events
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe Extended Events core concepts.
- Create and query Extended Events sessions.
Module 13: Monitoring SQL Server The Microsoft SQL
Server Database Engine can run for long periods without the need
for administrative attention. However, if you regularly monitor the
activity that occurs on the database server, you can deal with
potential issues before they arise. SQL Server provides a number of
tools that you can use to monitor current activity and record
details of previous activity. You need to become familiar with what
each of the tools does and how to use them. It is easy to become
overwhelmed by the volume of output that monitoring tools can
provide, so you also need to learn techniques for analyzing their
output.
Lessons
- Monitoring activity
- Capturing and Managing Performance Data
- Analyzing Collected Performance Data
- SQL Server Utility
Lab: Monitoring SQL Server After completing this
module, you will be able to:
- Monitor current activity.
- Capture and manage performance data.
- Analyze collected performance data.
- Configure SQL Server Utility.
Module 14: Troubleshooting SQL Server Database
administrators working with Microsoft SQL Server need to adopt the
important role of troubleshooter when issues arise—particularly if
users of business-critical applications that rely on SQL Server
databases are being prevented from working. It is important to have
a solid methodology for resolving issues in general, and to be
familiar with the most common issues that can arise when working
with SQL Server systems.
Lessons
- A Trouble Shooting Methodology for SQL Server
- Resolving Service Related Issues
- Resolving Connectivity and Log-in issues
Lab: Troubleshooting Common Issues
- Troubleshoot and Resolve a SQL Login Issue
- Troubleshoot and Resolve a Service Issue
- Troubleshoot and Resolve a Windows Login Issue
- Troubleshoot and Resolve a Job Execution Issue
- Troubleshoot and Resolve a Performance Issue
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe a troubleshooting methodology for SQL Server.
- Resolve service-related issues.
- Resolve login and connectivity issues.
Module 15: Importing and Exporting Data While a
great deal of data residing in a Microsoft SQL Server system is
entered directly by users who are running application programs,
there is often a need to move data in other locations, to and from
SQL Server. SQL Server provides a set of tools you can use to
transfer data in and out. Some of these tools, such as the bcp
(Bulk Copy Program) utility and SQL Server Integration Services,
are external to the database engine. Other tools, such as the BULK
INSERT statement and the OPENROWSET function, are implemented in
the database engine. With SQL Server, you can also create data-tier
applications that package all the tables, views, and instance
objects associated with a user database into a single unit of
deployment. In this module, you will explore these tools and
techniques so that you can import and export data to and from SQL
Server.
Lessons
- Transferring Data to and from SQL Server
- Importing and Exporting Table Data
- Using bcp and BULK INSERT to Import Data
- Deploying and Upgrading Data-Tier Application
Lab: Importing and Exporting Data
- Import and Excel Data Using the Import Wizard
- Import a Delimited Text File Using bcp
- Import a Delimited Text File using BULK INSERT
- Create and Test an SSIS Package to Extract Data
- Deploy a Data-Tier Application
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- Describe tools and techniques for transferring data.
- Import and export table data.
- Use bcp and BULK INSERT to import data.
- Use data-tier applications to import and export database
applications.
