October 17, 2012 at 4:24 am
So
I would like to try and find out - ideally for those working for a single employer - not consulting multiplexers working from home (but yes, them too!) how you actually do your job?
Some people have untrusted domains, locked off by firewalls and just an rdp connection. Others can connect straight from their desktops.
Where do you fit in, what is 'normal'
Cheers all
Rich
October 17, 2012 at 8:11 am
The only problem with RDP is that if you have 3rd party tools to help you with your work, and you have individualized settings on those tools, RDP sessions require extra licensing and possibly extra set up. That's why I like two different security paths better.
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October 17, 2012 at 8:28 am
I'm asking because of the situation I find myself in, locked away behind firewalls, very little access.
Multiple domains that can't see each other, tools that can't connect up... etc. Just wondering if I'm alone, or if that is reasonably normal.
The response so far seems mixed... but does suggest I am not alone! Perhaps we should start a support group 🙂
October 17, 2012 at 8:39 am
Hey Rich, I used to RDP to database on cloud servers. beyond that test/dev servers were kept local so I would only RDP to them when I needed to move files but for SQL queries i'd run through SSMS.
I've also connected to the cloud databases using SSMS however after upgrading to SQL 2008 R2 I found it was really slow to connect locally. My shortcut was amended to connect automatically without me passing credentials, SEE below link if its of any help:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4212912/url-to-make-ssms-start-and-connect-to-a-db
October 17, 2012 at 9:13 am
Aye, ta. Also worth knowing about the runas /netonly command, which will allow you to use your local ssms to connect and windows authenticate to servers on a different domain. But only of couse, if you have a port open to it...
Mind you, has anyone tried setting up an endpoint on the rdp ports?
October 17, 2012 at 9:15 am
Almost exclusively RDP, since I have to perform other tasks on the servers as well. I'm the only developer / DBA / operator in the entire shop. The machine is only visible inside the company's network, so it's relatively safe from attack, and RDP is just easiest.
October 17, 2012 at 9:24 am
I was trying to remember what else I did. Yes my rdp shortcut also used the /netonly command.
Do you know why a local SSMS is so slow when connecting to SQL 2008 servers. Mind you it was in my last company so I couldnt replicate now.
October 17, 2012 at 9:46 am
Could be the autocomplete stuff? Find that dbname.. becomes quite painful if you have a few 1000 objects.
October 17, 2012 at 11:55 am
This whole thing also depends on how segregated the workplace is. If you work in an environment where production DBAs are different from Dev DBAs are different from BI DBAs, then of course you're not going to be able to touch everything you might think you need.
And then if you work in a place where server administration is a different team than the DBAs, that's a whole nother set of perms you lose. @=)
October 17, 2012 at 1:38 pm
On our end I use SSMS directly from my system to reach all of our systems, and on the few off-site systems I can VPN into those and still use SSMS. Red Gate SQL Prompt has spoiled me, and given I have it locally it's nice to have regardless of which server I'm connected to.
As for authentication, my domain account is not a sysadmin on all of our servers, specially on vendor maintained servers, so on some i have to log in but most I can just use trusted authentication.
I honestly don't care to use SQL over RDP mainly because it's slow and we don't have SQL Prompt installed on any of the servers. Yeah I can get by without it, did for MANY years, but it's still nice to have 🙂
October 18, 2012 at 5:15 am
Where I work, we are not able to RDP to any of the production servers, but we are able to connect via SSMS. If I have to do anything outside of SSMS, I have to go into the server room and log in with a common administrative account. Fortunately, we all sit within about 10-15 feet of the server room.
October 19, 2012 at 9:00 am
One domain behind a very tight firewall but I can SSMS all my servers even when they are in another country (well, Scotland - no comments about independence here 🙂 )
Registered servers is essential to hold the connection info. There's about twenty sql servers I regularly use and many others I rarely need to access so connecting easily is essential.
I can also mstsc or just recently use Remote Desktop Connection Manager to log onto servers with my admin accounts.
October 19, 2012 at 10:26 am
I primarily use SSMS and only RDP into the server when I want to run something on the server that may take a significant amount of time to complete. That prevents any network disconnect from killing the process.
October 19, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I'm a DBA, so yes I use SSMS to get to all my servers. Indeed, I have groups of servers so that I can run the same command on multiple instances at the same time.
It would truly slow me down a lot if I had to RDP into every server to work on it (of course there could well be valid security reasons to force that in some situations/for some servers, but luckily I don't have any of those cases here).
SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) A socialist is someone who will give you the shirt off *someone else's* back.
October 24, 2012 at 7:50 am
Thanks for all the replies, seems like a good cross section.
Has anyone found any bigger scale polls that address this issue - do you reckon MS and the tool makers have a handle on it?
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