Windows Authentication to Access SQL Server Through a ASP.NET Web Application || Configuring SQL Server || Configuring IIS: || Configuring the ASP.NET Web Application || Creating Connection Strings

We need to configure the following four different areas to access Windows integrated security:

1.     SQL Server

2.     IIS Web Server

3.     ASP.Net web application

4.     ConnectionString

SQL Server be running on same IIS machine. If both are on different machines, we should go for analternative security model such as Forms authentication, which is not covered in this article. The access users must be in the same domain where the Web server is running.

Configuring SQL Server

To configure SQL Server for Windows integrated security:

1.     From the Windows Start menu, choose Microsoft SQL Server, and thenchoose Enterprise Manager.

2.     Open the node for the server and expand the node for the database you want to give users permissions for.

3.     Right-click the Users node and choose New Database User.

4.     In the Database User Properties dialog box, enter domain\username in the Login name box, and then click OK. Alternatively, configure the SQL Server to allow all domain users to access the database.

Configuring IIS:

You need to configure your application in IIS to turn off anonymous access and turn on Windows authentication. To configure IIS for Windows integrated security:

1.     In Windows, open the Internet Information Services administration tool.

2.     Open the node for your server, and then open nodes until you find the node for your application, typically under Default Web Site.

3.     Right-click your application and choose Properties.

4.     In the Directory Security tab, click Edit.

5.     In the Authentication Methods dialog box, clear the Anonymous Access box and make sure Integrated Windows authentication is checked.

6.     Click OK to close all the dialog boxes.

Configuring the ASP.NET Web Application

In the application configuration file (Web.config), you establish the authentication mode that your application uses and establish that the application will impersonate the user's credentials—that is, that it will run as that user. To configure Web.config to allow Windows integrated security:

Open the Web.config file for your application and add the following elements to it:

 <authentication mode="Windows" />

<identity impersonate="true"/>

The <authentication> element might already be there.

Creating Connection Strings

When you create a connection string to access SQL Server, you must include attributes that tell SQL Server that you are using Windows integrated security. To configure connection strings for Windows integrated security:

In any connection string for SQL Server, include the Trusted_Connection=Yes attribute and remove the username and password attributes. The following shows a typical connection string configured for Windows integrated security:

"data source=Sql01;initial catalog=Samala;

 integrated security=SSPI;persist security info=False;

 Trusted_Connection=Yes."

SSPI means Security Support Provider Interface.
Sample C# code for connecting SQL server from ASP.Net application using windows authentication:

private void DataBind() {

   sqlConnection = SqlConnection("data source=Roja;

                                  initial catalog=Samala;

                                  integrated security=SSPI;

                                  persist security info=False;

                                  Trusted_Connection=Yes");

   sqlConnection.Open();

      sqlDataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(

         "SELECT EmployeeID, FirstName, LastName, Title

          FROM Employees", sqlConnection);

   dataSet = new DataSet();

   sqlDataAdapter.Fill(dataSet, "Employees");

   DataGrid1.DataSource = dataSet.Tables["Employees"].DefaultView;

   DataGrid1.DataBind();

}

Important settings in the web.config file are as follows:

<system.web>

<authentication mode = "Windows"/>

<identity impersonate="true"/>

<authorization>

   <allow users = "*"/>

</authorization>

<!--other settings-->

</system.web>

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