Was hoping to get some help on setting up our SQL Server with an alias. Currently, we run reports off it and then output the files on a folder structure on the server. For instance, we run SQL Job "Create Employee Retention Report", and it exports a file to "D:\Reports\Employees\EmployeeRetentionReport.txt", which is a drive on the server.
However, when users need to access these reports, they have to connect via the UNC path: "\\ServerName\Employees\EmployeeRetentionReport.txt". Also, when we connect to SSMS, it is "ServerName, 1433". However, we have a new company policy that is going into effect, that all servers have to be rebuilt each year, which also entails a new server name. So users would have to remap all their paths to "\\ServerName_NEW\Employees\....".
Also, we have tons of SSIS packages that reference the server, so we don't want to have to update these each year either.
So we want to create an Alias, so that we do not have to update paths each year for all of these files and connections. However, as we work in a large company, I am unsure how to go about doing this. I know there is something within SQL Configuration that you can set an Alias, but I am not sure how this will propagate throughout a company. I feel like it is something that needs done on a domain controller or something, not on the SQL Server itself, but I must admit (obviously) networking and this type of administration of SQL Server is beyond my skill level and it seems when I search for Alias on the web, all I can find is the SQL Server Configuration method.
So hoping someone can help out. Maybe it isn't a technique using Alias, but something else I can research or perhaps I just have a fundamental lack of understanding on how Alias works.
June 9, 2025 at 5:24 pm
Aliases can get you pretty far once you set up a little automation.
Aliases are stored in the Windows Registry (at least on Windows machines). Once you've created an Alias, you can search the Registry for it and export the entry to a .reg file. That file can be used to import the Alias elsewhere by importing the Registry entry. For your example above, I created an Alias called ServerName that points to 'NewServerName' port 1433. Then I used RegEdit to export the alias to a .reg file, and opened it in Notepad:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo]
"ServerName"="DBMSSOCN,NewServerName,1433"
It's just a text file with a ".reg" extension.
You can deploy this alias with a GPO so it downloads and installs automatically at login.
When servers change, update the .reg file and the GPO.
Being just a text file with a .reg extension, it's also easy to write a little PowerShell to read a spreadsheet, CSV, SQL table, etc. and write the .reg file with all the Aliases you need.
Eddie Wuerch
MCM: SQL
Keep in mind you can use DNS-aliasses instead of (client side) sql server aliasses !
If you rely on kerberos, you will have to register SPN(s) using the FQN of the DNS-alias.
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June 10, 2025 at 4:47 pm
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