Best practice says to keep my web app and database on separate machines, but when doing that it seems I can't get a clear explanation on how best to make this connection. Whil windows auth is the recommended authentication, I don't see how to make a trusted connection . Must I use impersonation to have my application connect to a db server?
Are most people simply using SQL authentication in this case?
Both machines are on a virtual cloud network.
If both computers are in the same domain, I'd use Windows Authentication for the SQL connection. To set it up:
Create a domain account to use for the app.
Give the id the absolute minimum priveleges necessary to host the site on the web server. For example, it must have read access to the web site itself, write access only to folders updated by the web site, etc.
Change IIS so that the domain account is used to run the app. In IIS6 & IIS7, you do this through the application pool. In IIS5, you have to change the settings in the machine.config or in the web.config for the ProcessModel.
All calls to the database will be done through this domain account; you won't have to setup impersonation. In fact, if you are using SQL authentication today, the only change you need to make is to the database connection string; no code changes are needed.
Related
I have two servers, let's say they are APPSVR (ASP.NET) and DBSVR (SQL Server). Currently, the application running smoothly with database connection using SQL Server authentication with User Id and Password.
In the future, it must be changed with Windows Authentication Integrated Security=True. I have tried to change this but can't worked (DB connection failure).
We have domain controller also and both server in the same domain. I am not sure which one that must be configured in our environment (Domain/SQL Server/IIS Manager). What's the right procedure to do this?
Is your asp.net application already running with domain user authentication?
Do you need per user login for SQL server because you set up the
access right on domain user rather than create your own access right
system on your asp.net application?
Why i am asking you this? Because You need to consider the differences between web application and desktop application. In web application, the web server contact the sql server not the user pc.
So this complicate the setup if you want the web server to use the windows authentication to login to sql server then you need to set up the web server to somehow masquerade as the domain users. You also need to consider the scenario if user are accessing the web application from the internet.
I suggest using strong application only password for sql server connection using local user rather than domain Users. For access right you can simply create a new table to store domain user login id and their access right. This set up still allow login to web application using the domain Users but the database connection is not. The Advantage is you can minimize the access to simply few or even one user application only user you need to maintain in sql server rather than every domain Users that need to be registered on sql server if you use windows authentication.
If you still need the Windows Authentication set up than you can see the info here.
We recently had to change over to using Windows Auth instead of a SQL Account to access the DB from our ASP site. The trick is to have the application pool start up with the same domain account you use to access the SQL Server and then you can just change your connection string to use Integrated Security.
The process is shown here:
https://thycotic.force.com/support/s/article/Using-Windows-Authentication-to-access-SQL-Server-Secret-Server
I have created a group on AD, and configured this group to have access to my SQL Server. With it, any .Net app, SQL Server and SSIS are able to connect to SQL Server using any AD account that's on that group, they just need to set Trusted Connection/Windows Authentication.
Now I need to do the same on IIS apps. But I have never configured IIS and don't know how to do it. I Googled it, but everything refers to user authenticating to IIS using NTLM, not IIS connecting to SQL Server.
For Server2008 and higher you will likely want to use Application Pool Identity. This article helped get me going when I set up an IIS / SQL Application.
http://www.iis.net/learn/manage/configuring-security/application-pool-identities
EDIT:
Specifically where it demonstrates how to use a built in account there is an option to choose a custom account.
https://thycotic.force.com/support/s/article/Running-Secret-Server-IIS-Application-Pool-with-a-Service-Account
EDIT2:
Using windows auth - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chiranth/2014/04/17/setting-up-kerberos-authentication-for-a-website-in-iis/
What I want to do is:
Allow anonymous users to access my ASP .NET site.
Use Windows Authentication for the site to access Sql Server. It will log in to Sql Server with a domain account set aside especially for the site (and preferably do everything under the same account).
Every article on the Web tells you to do this:
<authentication mode="Windows"/>
<identity impersonate="true"/>
in Web.config. However, I gather that this is only if you want users to log in with Windows Authentication. It has nothing to do with the server logging in to SQL Server (except that the combination of the above 2 implies that users' authentication will also be used to connect to the database). Is this correct? Given that my Windows account has access to files on the server and the database which the site is connecting to, this seems hard to test....
It seems that if I:
set the App Pool Identity to the domain account
enable Anonymous Access on the site using the domain account
use a connect string with Windows Authentication
then the site will connect to SQL Server via Windows Authentication. Also, it will use the domain account as long as impersonation is off. Is this correct?
in Web.config. However, I gather that
this is only if you want users to log
in with Windows Authentication. It has
nothing to do with the server logging
in to SQL Server
This is partially true. The impersonated account will be used to logon SQL server if delegation is setup properly. You didn't see this because in most of the environment, delegation needs to be explicitly setup. Delegation is a more powerful form of impersonation and makes it possible for the server process (in your case, IIS process) to access remote resources (in your case, SQL server) while acting as the client. For more information, you can google ASP.NET Delegation. I said it's partially true because in some simple environment, you don't even need any special configuration. The delegation is just working. For example, if you have SQL server running on the same machine as the IIS server. Another case is that you have your IIS server running on an Active Directory domain controller (very rare). In these two cases or on a machine with delegation configured properly, your above statements will be wrong.
It seems that if I:
set the App Pool Identity to the
domain account
enable Anonymous
Access on the site using the domain
account
use a connect string with
Windows Authentication
then the site
will connect to SQL Server via Windows
Authentication. Also, it will use the
domain account as long as
impersonation is off. Is this correct?
Yes, this is correct.
Given that my Windows account has
access to files on the server and the
database which the site is connecting
to, this seems hard to test....
It's easy to test if you have two domain accounts (or one domain account and one local account). Set the App Pool identity to use your DomainAccount1. Grant only DomainAccount1 to have permission to access your database. Access your web app on another machine using another accound (either domain account or local account). Test if the web app can properly access your database.
If I'm following you correctly, you are right; You do not want to use impersonation/authentication to do what you want to do. Set the App Pool identity appropriately, and assure that user account has appropriate access to SQL Server.
Instead of using a Windows Account you can create a separate Sql Login i.e. a username/pwd and use that in the connection string instead.
I have a .net web app hosting in IIS6 with Windows Authentication and anonymous access disabled. The web app is making connection to a SQL Server that is in the same domain, but on a different machine.
I want to have the IIS Worker process acount I_USR_... to be granted access to the SQL Server.
Will this work ?
(Is there a one to one trust ? Or should I make some extra effort to make the trust work ?)
(edit)
On this page I read:
IUSR_ must be in the domain, and given proper access to the SQL Server; or, you must disable anonymous access on the site / application - which will allow IIS to pass the users' credentials to SQL Server. Not doing either of these things will result in an error.
This can work if you provide SQL access to the identity of the application pool.
There is no way you can pass your users' credentials to the SQL even with impersonation.
You should be fine either by allowing that domain account access on the SQL Server box or creating a SQL Server account and use that to query the database.
More information on Connection Strings and Trusted Connections here: http://www.connectionstrings.com/sql-server-2008
It would be a good idea to set up a sql user account or a domain account specific for you connection.
Having the same account helps with connection pooling:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8xx3tyca.aspx
To get this to work, you must configure Active Directory to establish trust between your web server and the database server. This is called delegation. It is something you must actively configure for each server, because it is inherently unsafe to allow a process to take someone's credentials and use it all over the network.
More info here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff647404.aspx
A slightly more readable version:
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3696506/Setting-Up-Delegation-for-Linked-Servers.htm
I am having a problem with deploying a ASP.NET V2 web application to our deployment environment and am having trouble with the sql server setup .
When I run the website I get a Login failed for user 'MOETP\MOERSVPWLG$'. error when it tries to connect to the database.
This seems to be the network service user which is the behaviour I want from the application but I don't seem to be able to allow the network service user to access the database.
Some details about the setup. IIS 6 and SQL Server 2005 are both setup on the same server in the deployment environment. The only change from the test setup I made is to point the database connection string to the new live database and of course copy everything over.
My assumption at this point is that there is something that needs to be done to the SQL server setup to allow connections from asp.net. But I can't see what it could be.
Any Ideas?
It sounds like you're able to connect to the database alright and you're using integrated windows authentication.
With integrated windows authentication your connection to your database is going to use whatever your application pool user identity is using. You have to make sure that the user identity that asp.net is using is on the database server.
If it is a fresh install not everything may be setup. Check SQL Server Configuration Manager, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174212.aspx. Step by step instructions http://download.pro.parallels.com/10.3.1/docs/windows/Guides/pcpw_upgrade_guide/7351.htm.
The user name you've indicated in your post is what the Network Service account on one machine looks like to other machines, ie "DOMAIN\MACHINENAME$".
If you are connecting from IIS6 on one machine to SQL Server on another machine and you are using Network Service for the application pool's process identity then you need to explicitly add 'MOETP\MOERSVPWLG$' as a login to the SQL Server, and map it to an appropriate database user and role. Type that name in exactly as the login name (minus quotes, of course).
Make sure there is a login created for the user you are trying to log in as on the sql server.
There's a few different things it could be.
Are you using integrated windows authentication? If so, you need to make sure the user ASP.net is running as can talk to the database (or impersonate one that can).
Does the web server have permission to talk to the database? Sometimes a web server is deployed in a DMZ.
If you are using a SQL Server login, does that same login exist on the production server with the same permissions?