Fasthosts Customer Support

MSSQL
Quick Start
Guide
This guide will help you:

 Add a MS SQL database to your account

 Find your database

 Add additional users

 Set your user permissions

 Upload your database

 Back up your database

Customer Support | MSSQL Quick Start Guide

Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................... 1
Before you start .................................................................................. 1
Fasthosts database management screen .......................................... 2
Add an MS SQL database to your account .................................... 3
Find your Database ............................................................................ 5
Add users to your database ............................................................... 6
Setting your user permissions ............................................................ 8
Connect to your database ................................................................ 14
Move an existing Database to Fasthosts ......................................... 16
Back up your Microsoft SQL database ............................................ 20
Back up your database content .................................................... 20
Backing up stored procedures and functions ................................ 25
Importing Microsoft SQL database content .................................. 27
Further reading ................................................................................ 31

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Customer Support | MSSQL Quick Start Guide

Introduction
SQL databases provide many benefits to the web designer, allowing you to
dynamically update your web pages, collect and maintain customer data and
allowing customers to contribute to your website with content of their own. In
addition, many software applications, such as blogs, forums and content
management systems require a database to store their information.

SQL stands for Structured Query Language, which is a standard interactive

programming language used for many popular databases.

We offer two types of database: MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server. Most popular
web applications require one of these database types. You can find out which
database type you need on your chosen application's website.

MS SQL is a database designed by Microsoft to be compatible with standard

SQL commands.

Before you start

Microsoft have developed SQL Server Management Studio 18 to help you
manage your database easily and quickly. Some of the tasks described within
this guide require the installation of this software on your local machine.

Through the Graphical User Interface (GUI) you are able to create tables,
schema, objects and users. You can also set permissions and run scripts directly
on your database.

SQL Server Express 2019 is available as a free download at:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads

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Fasthosts database management screen

From the database management screen, you are able to create and edit your
databases.

Step 1
Log in to your account and select Databases under Hosting & Domains.

Step 2
You will see a list of all MSSQL and MySQL databases in your account.

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Add an MS SQL database to your account

When you add a database to your account, it is created on one of our dedicated
database servers but you can easily access it from your web space.

Step 1
Follow the steps above to navigate to Fasthosts database management screen.

Step 2
Click Add New database.

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Step 3
Choose MSSQL Server as the database type, and enter a name for the new
database. This name must be unique on our system, so you may be asked to try
again if another customer has already chosen that name.

Quick tip: The username must be unique, so try using your

domain name in the user name. For example, if your domain
is myonlineshop.com, then you could call your database
myonlineshopdb and the user could be
myonlineshopdbuser.

Note: Database names are case sensitive.

Click Add Database when you’ve entered a name for your database.

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Step 4
Confirm your order, if necessary, by clicking the Order Now button. The
database will be added to your package, and you will see an on-screen
confirmation message.

Find your Database

Your MS SQL database is hosted on a specialised server optimised for MS SQL
databases. To connect to your database, you must use the database server’s IP
address.

Important: You cannot connect to your database using

localhost.

Once you have created a database the Database name and IP address are
shown on the Database management screen. Follow the steps shown in the
section entitled “Fasthosts database management screen” to view your database
details.

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Add users to your database

Once you have added your new database, you need to create at least one user
to connect to it.

If you'd like to give other people, or software, access to your database, but want
to restrict what they can do, create a new database user with different
permissions.

Step 1
Follow the steps shown in the section entitled “Fasthosts database management
screen”

Step 2
In the list of databases, click the database name.

Step 3
Click the Add User button.

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Step 4
Choose a username for this user and enter it into the Username text box.

Select the Give this user DBO access box if you want this user to be a Database
Owner. Database Owners have full permission to add, modify, and remove tables
and data within the database. If you do not tick this box you can modify the user’s
permissions later.

You also need to choose a password, and confirm it in the boxes provided.

Note: The username must be unique on our system.

Click Add User to create the new user. You will receive on-screen confirmation
that the user has been created.

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Setting your user permissions

It is good practice to create additional users with limited permissions to connect
to your database for day to day use.

In the following example we have already created a new user, which our website
will use to connect to our database with. For this reason, we will limit the access
this user will have to our database.

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio 18.

Step 2
Enter your database IP address in the text box marked Server name.

Step 3
Select Use SQL Server authentication from the list, enter your database owner
(DBO) username and password in the text boxes provided, then click Connect.

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Step 4
In the left hand Object explorer window, open your database, then double click
on the user you want to set permissions on.

Important: You should not change the permissions of the

DBO user.

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Step 5
A new window will open. Click Server Roles. To change the role of the user across
the entire database select the box appropriate to the new role of your user.

There are 9 different roles available, these being:

Role Permissions
bulkadmin Can run the BULK INSERT statement.
dbcreator Can create, alter, drop, and restore any database.
diskadmin Used for managing disk files.
processadmin Can end processes that are running in an instance of SQL Server.
public Every SQL Server login belongs to the public server role
securityadmin Can manage logins and their properties.
serveradmin Can change server-wide configuration options and shut down the
server.
setupadmin Can add and remove linked servers by using Transact-SQL
statements
sysadmin Can perform any activity in the server.

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Quick tip: Permissions errors are often caused by assigning

users more than 1 database role. It is good practice to
restrict each user to a single role..

Now we may want to enable this user to make changes to a particular table
within the database.

Step 6
To set custom permissions to specific areas of your database, click Securables
in the top left corner of the screen.

Step 7
Click the Search button to find the objects within your database to set
permissions for. In this example we will set the permissions on two tables within
the database.

Step 8
Select Specific objects then click OK.

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Step 9
Click Object Types, select the objects that you want to edit and click OK.

Step 10
Enter the object names in the text box provided, or click Browse to choose your
objects from a list. When you have selected all the tables and objects you want to
modify the users’ permissions for, click OK.

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Step 11
You should now be back on the Securables window, so select the object you
want to modify to highlight it, and use the check boxes in the lower pane (on the
Explicit tab) to set the permissions for your user.

Quick tip: You can set specific permissions for columns

within a table by clicking the Column Permissions button.

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Connect to your database

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Step 2
Enter your database IP address in the text box marked Server name.

Step 3
Select Use SQL Server authentication from the list, enter your database
username and password in the text boxes provided, then click Connect.

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Step 4
Your database can be found in the list titled Object Explorer.

Note: Because your database is hosted on a dedicated

database server, you will see the names of other user’s
databases in the list. You will not be able to view or modify
any database other than your own, and other users won’t
have any access to your database and the data held within
it..

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Move an existing Database to Fasthosts

If you already have an existing database, either with another hosting company, or
on a development server on your own network, you can move your existing
database to Fasthosts directly using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
The software will allow you to import data directly from another SQL database, a
Microsoft Access database, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or a flat text file.

This example will show you how to transfer the data from another Microsoft SQL
database.

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Step 2
Connect to your database using the database owner username and password
(see the section Connect to your database earlier in this guide for assistance).

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Step 3
Right-click on your database and select Tasks > Import Data from the popup
menu.

Step 4
The Import and Export Wizard will open, click Next.

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Step 5
Select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 from the list, and enter the database server
and connection details required to connect to the source database. Once you
have entered these, select the source Database from the list, then click Next.

Step 6
Enter the details of your MSSQL database, as follows:

 Destination: Select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 from the drop down
menu.
 Server name: Enter the IP address of your MSSQL database. This
information is shown within your Fasthosts control panel.

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 Authentication: Select Use SQL Server Authentication and enter your

database username and password. This is the same username and
password you chose when you created your database.
 Database: Select your database from the drop down menu. When you've
entered the information, click Next.

Step 7
Select the option Copy data from one or more tables or views and click Next.

Step 8
Select the tables you wish to import, and then click Next.

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Step 9
Click Next, then Finish to import your data.

You will receive confirmation that your data has been imported to your database.

Back up your Microsoft SQL database

It is highly recommend that you make regular backups of your database, and this
process is easier than ever using SQL Server Management Studio.

Back up your database content

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Step 2
Connect to your database using the database owner username and password
(see the section Connect to your database earlier in this guide for assistance).

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Step 3
Right-click on your database and select Tasks, then Export Data from the popup
menus.

Important: You will not be able to use the Back up option

from this menu.

Step 4
The Import/Export wizard will open, click Next.

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Step 5
In the form provided, enter the following details:

 Data source: Select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 from the drop down
menu.
 Server Name: Enter the IP address of your database server. This is shown
within your Fasthosts control panel.
 Authentication: Select Use SQL Server Authentication, then enter your
database username and password. This is the username and password you
chose when you created your database.
 Database: Enter the name of your database from the drop down menu.

Click Next once you have entered all the required information.

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Step 6
You will be asked where to export the database contents to. Select Flat File
Destination from the drop down menu and choose a filename and location for
your backup.

In this example we have also changed the Locale to English (United Kingdom)
and selected the option marked Column names in the first data row.

Click Next when you are done.

Quick tip: This example shows you how to back up your

content to a .txt file. If you would like to back up your data to
a separate database, select SQL Server Native Client 11.0
from the drop down menu and enter your database details in
the text boxes provided

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Step 7
Select Copy data from one or more tables or views and click Next.

Step 8
Finally, choose which tables or views you want to export and select how you
would like the file to be formatted. Once done click Next.

Step 9
Click Next, then Finish to export your file. You will receive confirmation that your
database content has been backed up.

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Backing up stored procedures and functions

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Step 2
Connect to your database using the database owner username and password
(see the section Connect to your database earlier in this guide for assistance).

Step 3
Right-click on your database and select Tasks, then Generate Scripts... from the
drop down menus.

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Step 4
Choose Select specific database objects and then Stored Procedures then
click Next.

Step 5
Choose a location to save your stored procedure and a file name for this backup.
Then click Save.

The selected stored procedures will now be saved on your computer.

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Importing Microsoft SQL database content

Step 1
Open SQL Server Management Studio.

Step 2
Connect to your database using the database owner username and password
(see the section Connect to your database earlier in this guide for assistance).

Step 3
Right-click on your database and select Tasks > Import Data from the popup
menu.

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Step 4
The Import and Export Wizard will open, click Next.

Step 5
Choose a data source for the data you wish to import from the Data source list.

Note: In this example we are importing data from a .txt file

on our computer, however if you would like to import content
from a separate database, select SQL Server Native Client
11.0 from the drop down menu and enter the connection
details for this database in the text boxes provided and skip
to step 7.

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Step 6
Define the formatting of your data source, then click Next.

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Step 7
Enter the details of your MSSQL database, as follows:

 Destination: Select SQL Server Native Client 11.0 from the drop down
menu.
 Server name: Enter the IP address of your MSSQL database. This
information is shown within your Fasthosts control panel.
 Authentication: Select Use SQL Server Authentication and enter your
database username and password. This is the same username and
password you chose when you created your database.
 Database: Select your database from the drop down menu.

Click Next when you have entered all the required information.

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Step 8
Select the tables you wish to import, then click Next.

Step 9
Click Next, then Finish to import your data.

The import process may take a few minutes, and you will receive a confirmation
that the data has been successfully imported.

Further reading
Download Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-
management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15

Microsoft SQL Server Express information

 http://www.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx

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