How to connect test to production system

I am looking for guidance. I do SQL and other development on 2
computers, and I work remotely from my company's home office. (We use
SQL 2000 and 2005 both.)
My "main" computer has a VPN to the home office. Outside of that, and
before the VPN was set up, I had a TCP connection to ONE of the SQL
server instances at the home office... that specific destination port is
filtered so that only my TCP source IP address can connect to it.
(Now I use the VPN to connect to the home office Exchange server and
shared folders.)
My own "SQL server" computer is connected by Ehternet, ONLY to my
"main" computer. The main computer is obviously multi-homed, connecting
to the SQL computer and also to the outside world through a DSL router
(which is what the VPN connection now uses).
The SQL client on my main computer can see all of the SQL servers at the
home office. When I run the SQL client running on the SQL server
computer, it can only see the server that we had the TCP port set up
for.
The guidance is needed for the following... most of the views and stored
procs that I develop, get the data from the database that I keep a local
copy of, and there is a copy at the home office.
A few of the view and procs need to access data on some of the other SQL
servers at the home office. While my main computer can connect to those
servers, I have trouble setting them up as linked servers from my local
SQL server.
I also would like for the views and procs in my copy of the main
database here to look *exactly* like the views and procs in the database
at the home office... but there are instances of this:
Select * from [server\instance].dbname.dbo.table where...
And server\instance need to be different between the local developement
database and the production database at the home office.
1) Given that I now have a VPN, and the "main" computer is multihomed,
should I be able to link the database on my local SQL server to the
databases at the home office?
2) How do people develop views and stored procs on test systems, when
the call-out to the linked server might need a different server name in
production?
Sorry for such a long question, but I wanted to list all of the info
that might be pertinent.
Thanks.
David Walker
(I asked a specific but related question in the General group, and got
an answer that I couldn't quite do what I thought I could do. This
question is the general case, and I'm loking for advice.)I would post this to microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming
____________________________________
William (Bill) Vaughn
Author, Mentor, Consultant, Dad, Grandpa
Microsoft MVP
INETA Speaker
www.betav.com
www.betav.com/blog/billva
Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
__________________________________
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----
---
"DWalker" <none@.none.com> wrote in message
news:O8XxVY62HHA.1164@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>I am looking for guidance. I do SQL and other development on 2
> computers, and I work remotely from my company's home office. (We use
> SQL 2000 and 2005 both.)
> My "main" computer has a VPN to the home office. Outside of that, and
> before the VPN was set up, I had a TCP connection to ONE of the SQL
> server instances at the home office... that specific destination port is
> filtered so that only my TCP source IP address can connect to it.
> (Now I use the VPN to connect to the home office Exchange server and
> shared folders.)
> My own "SQL server" computer is connected by Ehternet, ONLY to my
> "main" computer. The main computer is obviously multi-homed, connecting
> to the SQL computer and also to the outside world through a DSL router
> (which is what the VPN connection now uses).
> The SQL client on my main computer can see all of the SQL servers at the
> home office. When I run the SQL client running on the SQL server
> computer, it can only see the server that we had the TCP port set up
> for.
> The guidance is needed for the following... most of the views and stored
> procs that I develop, get the data from the database that I keep a local
> copy of, and there is a copy at the home office.
> A few of the view and procs need to access data on some of the other SQL
> servers at the home office. While my main computer can connect to those
> servers, I have trouble setting them up as linked servers from my local
> SQL server.
> I also would like for the views and procs in my copy of the main
> database here to look *exactly* like the views and procs in the database
> at the home office... but there are instances of this:
> Select * from [server\instance].dbname.dbo.table where...
> And server\instance need to be different between the local developement
> database and the production database at the home office.
> 1) Given that I now have a VPN, and the "main" computer is multihomed,
> should I be able to link the database on my local SQL server to the
> databases at the home office?
> 2) How do people develop views and stored procs on test systems, when
> the call-out to the linked server might need a different server name in
> production?
> Sorry for such a long question, but I wanted to list all of the info
> that might be pertinent.
> Thanks.
> David Walker
>
> (I asked a specific but related question in the General group, and got
> an answer that I couldn't quite do what I thought I could do. This
> question is the general case, and I'm loking for advice.)|||Hi David,
Since your post has a good many of information, I would like to first
confirm with you if I understand your environment:
1. Your main computer connected to your home office network via VPN;
2. Your local SQL Server computer connected to your main computer via
Ethernet (Local Area Network); It did not directly connect to your home
office network;
3. Your local SQL Server could connect to a remote SQL Server in your home
office network with a specific destination TCP port opened.
Also, I have two questions and appreciate your confirmation since I have
not totally understood your scenario:
1. What is the relationship between your main computer and your local SQL
Server computer?
2. Which computer is your local copy of the main database located on, the
main computer or the local SQL Server computer?
For your two questions,
1) Given that I now have a VPN, and the "main" computer is multihomed,
should I be able to link the database on my local SQL server to the
databases at the home office?
Did you mean databases in different server instances here? If the databases
at the home office were all in the remote SQL Server with specific TCP port
opened, your local SQL Server should be able to connect to the databases in
the remote SQL Server instance.
If you meant that you would like to access the databases in different SQL
Server instances (may be located on different servers) at your home office
via linked server via your local SQL Server, you may try adding your main
server as the gateway of your local SQL Server computer to see if it helps.
Anyway, you need to ensure that the physical connections from your local
SQL Server computer to your remote servers could be established.
If the physical network connections could be established, you can add the
linked servers with SQL authentication (if Windows Authentication could not
be established).
2) How do people develop views and stored procs on test systems, when the
call-out to the linked server might need a different server name in
production?
You may try adding some server aliases on your test systems. These server
aliases have the same names as the server names in production.
For example, your test SQL Server instance name is "Server1\SQL2K", while
your production SQL Server instance name is "ProductServer\SQLServer". You
can first run cliconfg.exe (SQL 2000 client) from command line or SQL
Server Configuration Manager (SQL 2005 client) on your client computer to
configure a server alias "ProductServer\SQLServer" which represents your
test SQL Server instance "Server1\SQL2K" with a specific protocol (TCP/IP
or Named Pipes).
After that, you can run:
Sp_addlinkedserver 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER'
Go
Sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER','True'
Go
Then you can run the following statement to query the northwind database in
your local test SQL Server instance "Server1\SQL2K":
SELECT * FROM [ProductServer\SQLServer].northwind.dbo.employees
For configure server alias on a client computer, you may also refer to:
How to connect to a named instance of SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000 by
using the client tools in the earlier version of SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265808/en-us
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel
free to let me know.
Best regards,
Charles Wang
Microsoft Online Community Support
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When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
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==============|||Answers inline.
changliw@.online.microsoft.com (Charles Wang[MSFT]) wrote in
news:M55syrX3HHA.4100@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl:

> Hi David,
> Since your post has a good many of information, I would like to first
> confirm with you if I understand your environment:
> 1. Your main computer connected to your home office network via
> VPN; 2. Your local SQL Server computer connected to your main
> computer via Ethernet (Local Area Network); It did not directly
> connect to your home office network;
> 3. Your local SQL Server could connect to a remote SQL Server in
> your home office network with a specific destination TCP port opened.
> Also, I have two questions and appreciate your confirmation since I
> have not totally understood your scenario:
> 1. What is the relationship between your main computer and your
> local SQL Server computer?
They are both XP pro, connected with an Ethernet crossover cable, in the
same workgroup.

> 2. Which computer is your local copy of the main database located
> on, the main computer or the local SQL Server computer?
The local copy of the main database is on the SQL server computer. My
"main" computer is only a client, not running a SQL server.

> For your two questions,
> 1) Given that I now have a VPN, and the "main" computer is
> multihomed, should I be able to link the database on my local SQL
> server to the databases at the home office?
> Did you mean databases in different server instances here? If the
> databases at the home office were all in the remote SQL Server with
> specific TCP port opened, your local SQL Server should be able to
> connect to the databases in the remote SQL Server instance.
> If you meant that you would like to access the databases in different
> SQL Server instances (may be located on different servers) at your
> home office via linked server via your local SQL Server, you may try
> adding your main server as the gateway of your local SQL Server
> computer to see if it helps. Anyway, you need to ensure that the
> physical connections from your local SQL Server computer to your
> remote servers could be established.
> If the physical network connections could be established, you can add
> the linked servers with SQL authentication (if Windows Authentication
> could not be established).
> 2) How do people develop views and stored procs on test systems,
> when the call-out to the linked server might need a different server
> name in production?
> You may try adding some server aliases on your test systems. These
> server aliases have the same names as the server names in production.
> For example, your test SQL Server instance name is "Server1\SQL2K",
> while your production SQL Server instance name is
> "ProductServer\SQLServer". You can first run cliconfg.exe (SQL 2000
> client) from command line or SQL Server Configuration Manager (SQL
> 2005 client) on your client computer to configure a server alias
> "ProductServer\SQLServer" which represents your test SQL Server
> instance "Server1\SQL2K" with a specific protocol (TCP/IP or Named
> Pipes). After that, you can run:
> Sp_addlinkedserver 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER'
> Go
> Sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER','True'
> Go
> Then you can run the following statement to query the northwind
> database in your local test SQL Server instance "Server1\SQL2K":
> SELECT * FROM [ProductServer\SQLServer].northwind.dbo.employees
> For configure server alias on a client computer, you may also refer
> to: How to connect to a named instance of SQL Server 2005 or SQL
> Server 2000 by using the client tools in the earlier version of SQL
> Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265808/en-us
> Hope this helps. If you have any other questions or concerns, please
> feel free to let me know.
Thanks for the info. I will look into all of it.
I didn't know that I could make an alias which covers both the server
name AND the instance name. In fact, when I tried it, I got "SQL Server
does not exist or access denied." I'll make sure I have the parameters
right, and try again.
David

> Best regards,
> Charles Wang
> Microsoft Online Community Support
> ========================================
=============
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
> your newsreader so that others may learn and benefit
> from this issue.
> ========================================
==============
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights. ========================================
==============
>
>
>
>|||"William Vaughn" <billvaNoSPAM@.betav.com> wrote in news:O#W35g72HHA.536
@.TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> I would post this to microsoft.public.sqlserver.programming
>
Thanks. If I can't get things connected the way Charles Wang suggested,
I'll do that.
David|||changliw@.online.microsoft.com (Charles Wang[MSFT]) wrote in
news:M55syrX3HHA.4100@.TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl:

> Hi David,
[snip]

> You may try adding some server aliases on your test systems. These
> server aliases have the same names as the server names in production.
> For example, your test SQL Server instance name is "Server1\SQL2K",
> while your production SQL Server instance name is
> "ProductServer\SQLServer". You can first run cliconfg.exe (SQL 2000
> client) from command line or SQL Server Configuration Manager (SQL
> 2005 client) on your client computer to configure a server alias
> "ProductServer\SQLServer" which represents your test SQL Server
> instance "Server1\SQL2K" with a specific protocol (TCP/IP or Named
> Pipes). After that, you can run:
> Sp_addlinkedserver 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER'
> Go
> Sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 'ProductServer\SQLSERVER','True'
> Go
> Then you can run the following statement to query the northwind
> database in your local test SQL Server instance "Server1\SQL2K":
> SELECT * FROM [ProductServer\SQLServer].northwind.dbo.employees
>
Charles,
If I use the sp_addlinkedserver and sp_addlinkedsrvlogin, then I *don't*
need to use cliconfig first. Adding the linked server does the whole
thing. I got it to work this way.
Thanks.
David|||Hi David,
Thanks for your updating and response.
I am glad to hear that you used sp_addlinkedserver and sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
to resolve this issue. Yes, sp_addlinkedserver also has the function to
create an alias for a SQL Server instance. You can specify an alias for the
parameter @.server and specify the real server instance name for the
parameter @.datasrc. Personally I would like to use cliconfg since it allows
me to create an alias with a specific communication protocol. Sometimes it
is very helpful for resolving connection issues, especially for TCP/IP
connection when the SQL Server instance is listenning on a specific or
dynamic TCP port not 1433. That is why I recommended that you used it in my
last reply.
Since this issue has been resolved, now I would like check with you to see
whether you have any other questions or concerns. Please feel free to let
us know if you have.
Have a good day!
Best regards,
Charles Wang
Microsoft Online Community Support
========================================
=============
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via
your newsreader so that others may learn and benefit
from this issue.
========================================
==============
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
========================================
==============