Tricerat Support for Microsoft SQL Server Ports, Instances, and Database Server Aliases
This article describes Tricerat support for SQL Server ports, instances, and database aliases.
Background
Tricerat customers sometimes ask about configuration flexibility for static ports, dynamic ports, named instances, and database server aliases.
This article describes configuration options available to our customers.
Tricerat Products Supported
Tricerat supports configuring static ports, dynamic ports, named instances, and database server aliases for:
Simplify Suite
Simplify Print Server
Tricerat Service Based Printers
SQL Server Name Syntax
The syntax for specifying a SQL Server name is <host name or IP><, port number><\instance name>
<host name or IP> - This can be a machine name (resolvable by DNS) or an IP address.
<,port number> - This can be a valid port number up to (and including) 65535.
<\instance name> - This can be the name of an existing SQL Server instance
Static Ports
By default, Microsoft SQL Server listens for incoming client connections on TCP/IP port 1433.
Customers sometimes require SQL Server to listen on a different port by re-configuring SQL Server and internal firewalls.
To configure a static port when installing Tricerat products, use <host name or IP><, port number> syntax.
The following example configures a Simplify Suite installation to use SQL Server host TRICERAT-SQLDB and port number 11119:
Dynamic Ports
The port number a given Microsoft SQL Server listens on can be configured dynamically by the server.
The default instance for SQL Server does not support dynamic port allocation.
Named instances of SQL Server support both static and dynamic port allocation.
The Microsoft SQL Server Browser is responsible for finding and resolving dynamically allocated ports.
Once assigned, a dynamically calculated port number tends to remain unchanged for extended periods.
Although it is possible to configure a dynamically allocated port number when installing Tricerat products, this is not recommend since it is contrary to the intent of dynamic port allocation.
Tricerat products do not need to have any special knowledge of ports allocated dynamically by SQL Server.
Named Instances
SQL Server supports both a default instance and multiple named instances on the same server.
There are several reasons customers might implement multiple SQL instances, including operational flexibility and ease of performance management.
Named instances can be configured when installing Tricerat products using the <host name or IP><\instance name> syntax.
The following example configures a Simplify Suite installation to use SQL Server host SH-2008R2-SQL and named instance SIMPLIFY_TESTING:
A named instance always corresponds to a specific port number. In this sense a unique port number is equivalent to a named instance.
While possible, using a port number to configure a connection to a named instance of SQL Server is contrary to the intent of named instances and is not recommended.
Note: When both a port number and a named instance are provided, SQL Server ignores the instance name. Accordingly, when a port number and a named instance are provided to a Tricerat product installer, the port number is used and the instance name is discarded.
Database Server Aliases
SQL Server supports the concept of providing alias names for a database server. An alias is a combination of port and instance information that uniquely identifies a given SQL Server.
Customers configure database server aliases to provide operational flexibility to re-host databases without the need to revise client side configuration information.
The Microsoft SQL Server Browser is responsible for finding and resolving the actual server when a database server alias is used.
Tricerat products do not need to have any special knowledge of database server aliases for a given SQL Server.
Helpful Links
The following link describes how to configure SQL Server to listen on a port:
The following link describes how to manage database server aliases in SQL Server: