Authentication Types
SQL Authentication
When Combine uses SQL authentication to access the MS-SQL server, the SQL login name and password specified by the user in Combine will be used to connect and execute code on the target databases. This is the only authentication type where the user name and password are required. The SQL login name and password will then be stored by Combine using strong encryption technique so that others will not have access to this information.
To select SQL Authentication please set “Integrated Security” connection option to FALSE.
Windows Authentication
When windows authentication is used to connect to MS-SQL servers, Combine will use the credentials of the user logged into the Combine client machine and forward those credentials to the SQL server. In order to connect to a SQL server using this authentication mode, the user must be a member of a group on the domain that is permitted to log into the SQL server, or alternatively be defined as a domain user on the SQL server.
To select Windows Authentication please set “Integrated Security” connection option to TRUE.
Prompt for Authentication
When configuring Environments, folders, and Containers in the Container Manager, you can choose “Prompt” as the authentication type. If “Prompt” is chosen, you will be prompted to enter the authentication type and credentials to connect to databases and servers defined in your Containers at run-time, before code is deployed against all Container databases. Upon executing scripts and queries against a Container (and thus against all databases defined in the Container), you will be asked to select either SQL Authentication or Windows Authentication. If you use SQL Authentication then you must also provide the login name and password to connect to all databases and servers. Note that when you use “Prompt” authentication type then Combine will not store your user name and password and will only use those credentials in run-time to execute code.
Use Parent Settings for Authentication
In the Container Manager, when you create folders and Containers, you can choose to turn on the “Use parent connection properties” option to inherit the all connection settings of the parent. For example, say that you configure an Environment (or folder) to use SQL authentication and you give it a SQL login name and password. When you create a Container directly under the Environment node you can instruct the Container to use the SQL authentication settings (and all other connection settings) defined for the Environment by selecting the “Use parent connection settings” check-box. In turn, when executing code against the Container, these connection setting including authentication type and credentials will be used to connect and deploy the code against all databases defined in the Container.
Please note that when the “Use parent connection settings” option is checked then all connection settings are inherited. Exceptions are “Data Source” and “Initial Catalog” for SQL Databases inside Containers which always override any values from the parent container.
Use Encryption
Combine supports SSL encryption for SQL Server DB Instances. Using SSL, you can encrypt connections between Combine and your SQL Server DB Instances.
To use a SQL Server DB Instance over SSL, follow these general steps:
1. Download the public key for the server where SQL Server DB is installed.
2. Import the certificate into your Windows operating system. For more information on importing a certificate, see Manage Trusted Root Certificates.
3. Set “Encrypt” connection setting in Connection Propeties dialog to “True” for that server.
To display the encrypted status of your connection, run the following SQL query:
1 | |
To use SSL with Amazon servers please read “Using SSL with a SQL Server DB Instance” section on Amazon
If you are using self signed certificates (for example, on a test environment) you may have to turn ON TrustServerCertificate property too. In that case Combine will not validate the SQL Server SSL certificate.
Please note that Combine version 6.2 and below always turn ON this property. But for security reasons Combine 6.3 (and above) does not enable this property by default.