Is SQL Server 2005's Surface Area Configuration Tool Cluster Aware?
At SQL Server Magazine Connections at DevConnections in Las Vegas last week, I had the opportunity to geek out on SQL Server security for a full day at the end of the conference. Attendance was great and I hope that everyone left with a solid foundation of understanding of SQL Server security.
One question that came up was about the Surface Area Configuration utility that ships with SQL Server 2005. The question was whether SAC is cluster-aware. At the time I was showing the command-line version of the tool, but it really applies to both that and the GUI tool. Showing my developer bias, I didn’t know the answer but promised that I’d find out.
The answer is that yes, it is cluster aware, at least to the extent that you can configure remote computers with it. In the GUI version of the tool, use the Change Computer link on the opening page:
In the command line version of the tool, use the -S switch to specify the name of the remote computer. If you leave off this switch, SAC connects to the local computer.
If anyone has specific experiences using SAC in a cluster environment, I’d love to hear about them!
By the way, if you’re not familiar with the command line version, it is a handy way to export and import settings, making it relatively painless to configure multiple SQL Server instances the same way. See the sac Utility entry in BOL for more information.