Drupal 7 provides great support for SQL Server as a backend and there are a lot of reasons why you'll like this combination. This webcast starts by showing you how to install a Drupal 7 web site with a SQL Server Express backend in a few clicks with WebPi and then discusses how to create and manage databases, logins and users using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and the command line (SQLCMD).

1. Drupal on IIS with a
SQL Server database
Alessandro Pilotti
@alexpilotti
MVP ASP.NET / IIS
MCSD, MCAD, MCSE, MCDBA, MCT
Red Hat Certified Engineer

2. SQL Server and Drupal
 Drupal offers the option to choose the database backend
 No more limited to MySQL
 Drupal 7 provides great support for SQL Server 2008
 All major modules nowadays use PDO and portable SQL
 Works as well with SQL Server 2008 R2 and 2012
 MS provides a PHP PDO driver for SQL Server
 There’s a free Express edition
 Limited to 10GB per database
 SQL Azure

3. SQL Server for MySQL devs /
admins
 SQL Server is a relational database like MySQL
 You can write SQL queries
(SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE DELETE)
 Like for every other DBMS there are some tricky
differences
 E.g. MySQL is more forgiving in the GROUP BY clause
 Management tools:
 Management Studio
 sqlcmd.exe

4. Edition comparison
 Express (free)
 Contains everything you need for the average Drupal site
 Limited to 10GB database size, 1GB memory, 1 socket / 4
cores
 Web
 Standard
 Enterprise
 Feature comparison charts:
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993.aspx

5. SQL Server useful features
 Online backup (included also in express edition!)
 Full
 Differential
 Log
 Replication
 Min. standard edition, web and express only as subscribers
 Mirroring
 Min. standard edition
 Log shipping
 Min. web editition
 Great profiling tools
 UI tools in standard edition

6. Instances
 You can install multiple isolated instances on the same
server
 Only one can be the default unnamed instance
 All the others are named
 It means that you connect to the server with a name:
 E.g. yourserverSQLEXPRESS

7. Databases
 SQL Server instances, like MySQL, contain multiple
databases
 Every Drupal site has usually a separate database
 Or you can use table_prefix of course
 Databases can be moved to different instances
 detached from one
 Attached to the other
 Databases can be put individually offline

8. Authentication
 Login
 Credentials needed to connect to the instance
 Windows account (integrated)
 No password, best security approach
 SQL server (mixed mode)
 Classic username and password
 Instance wide roles can be assigned to logins
 Database users
 Specific to each database
 Logins are mapped to database users
 Object level (table, etc) permissions are granted to users
 Roles
 A collection of permissions
 Users can be assigned to roles

9. Main database roles
 db_owner
 Can do everything on the database (not the instance!)
 db_datareader
 Can run SELECT on any table / view
 db_datawriter
 Can run INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
 db_ddladmin
 Can run any DDL command (CREATE, DROP, etc)

10. How to create a database
 Very easily with Management Studio
 Via command line:
sqlcmd –S .SQLEXPRESS –E
create database drupal7
create login drupal7 with password = 'Passw0rd’
go
use drupal7
go
create user drupal7 for login drupal7
exec sp_addrolemember db_owner, drupal7
go

11. Drupal 7 site with SQL Server
using WebPi
 With just a few click using WebPi
 Add also:
 SQL Server 2008 R2 Management Studio Express with
SP1

12. Drupal 7 site with SQL Server
w/o WebPi
 Create web site
 Download and install SQL Server PDO driver:
 http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=20098
 Enable PHP extensions php_sqlsrv and
php_pdo_sqlsrv
 Drush @drupal7 dl sqlsrv
 cd your_drupal_site_path
 xcopy /i sitesallmodulessqlsrvsqlsrv
includesdatabasesqlsrv

13. Database management
 Schedule proper backup policy
 With or without transaction log
 Schedule maintenance tasks
 Update statistics
 Reindex
 Shrink database

14. Backup policy
 Schedule a proper backup policy, e.g.:
 Full database backup every night
 Log every 5’ (or more, depending on your db)
 This way you will not lose more than 5’ of data!
 To be able to backup the transaction log, set the
database recovery model to
 Full or Bulk-Logged
 Default is Simple

15. Backup
 Use Management Studio
 or
 BACKUP DATABASE [drupal7] TO DISK =
N'c:backupdrupal7_backup.bak' WITH INIT, NAME =
N'drupal7-Full Database Backup’
 Store backups on a remote file share!
 To do that run the SQL service with an ad hoc user
 Create the same user on the server with the network
share

16. Set recovery model
 Management Studio (very easy)
 T-SQL (e.g. sqlcmd):
USE [master]
GO
ALTER DATABASE [drupal7] SET RECOVERY FULL
WITH NO_WAIT

17. How to schedule a backup
 The express edition of SQL Server doesn’t have a UI to schedule
backups and other tasks
 We can use the windows scheduler to schedule:
 Full backup every night
 Log backup every 5’
 Delete of old backups every night
schtasks.exe /create /tn drupal7_db_backup_full /tr "sqlcmd -S
.SQLExpress -E -i c:backupdrupal7_backup_full.sql" /sc DAILY /ru
Administrator /rp /st 02:00:00
 Useful task commands:
 schtasks.exe /run /tn drupal7_db_backup_full
 schtasks.exe /delete /tn drupal7_db_backup_full

18. To schedule a log backup
 E.g.: every 15’:
 schtasks.exe /create /tn drupal7_dbbackup_log /tr
"sqlcmd -S .SQLExpress -E -i
c:backupdrupal7_backup_log.sql" /sc MINUTE /MO 15
/ru administrator /rp

19. Restore a database
 Best done via Management Studio
 Or manually (here’s a complete sample):
 RESTORE DATABASE [drupal7] FROM DISK =
N'c:backupdrupal7_backup_full_2012_05_15_14_53_06_470.bak' WITH FILE =
1, NORECOVERY
 GO
 RESTORE DATABASE [drupal7] FROM DISK =
N'c:backupdrupal7_backup_diff_2012_05_15_14_53_09_867.bak' WITH FILE =
1, NORECOVERY
 GO
 RESTORE LOG [drupal7] FROM DISK =
N'c:backupdrupal7_backup_log_2012_05_15_14_53_13_913.trn' WITH FILE =
1, NORECOVERY
 GO
 RESTORE LOG [drupal7] FROM DISK =
N'c:backupdrupal7_backup_log_2012_05_15_14_53_15_200.trn' WITH FILE = 1
 GO