Appendix A. Configure SQL Server

This appendix describes how to install and configure SQL Server for best performance with Nuix. Discover. Before beginning the SQL Server installation process, read this section thoroughly. Administrators installing Nuix Discover must have SQL Server knowledge. These recommendations assume that the target server has never hosted SQL Server.

Note: For more information, please refer to the Nuix Discover 10.17 – Hardware and System Requirements document.

Install SQL Server

The following software is required to install SQL Server:

SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU5 or higher, SQL Server 2017 CU28 (Build version 14.0.3023.8) or higher, or SQL Server 2019 CU16. Either Standard or Enterprise edition can be used.

SQL Full Text

SQL Server Analysis Services (required for Cubes)

Important: Analysis Services should be installed in Multidimensional Mode.

When you install SQL Server, always record the following details about your environment:

Installation path

Types of network protocols to support

Server collation settings, including character sets, case and accent sensitivity, and so on. The preferred SQL collation is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

Note: If migrating existing Nuix Discover cases to a new environment, SQL collation should match the prior environment SQL collation.

SQL Server collation settings

You can install SQL Server using different collation settings. These collation settings determine the default character set and case and accent sensitivity for use when determining how to order your query results.

Note: The preferred SQL collation is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

If you are migrating databases between servers in your environment, it is very important that you maintain homogeneous database collations. The collation setting of a database must match the collation setting of the database server to operate effectively in the Nuix Discover environment.

Note: Nuix Discover does not support the use of case-sensitive database collations.

SQL Server service accounts

Use the information in the following sections to set up the service accounts for SQL Server.

Note: In this section the “service account” is the user that is running the SQL Server services. This can be, but often it is not the same account as the Nuix Discover Service Account as described in the Service account section of the Planning chapter above.

Set up service accounts for SQL Server

On Windows operating systems, SQL Server and its various components start and run various Windows services. In the Windows Control Panel, these services appear in the list of installed services in the Services dialog box.

The following table describes the service names and terms for the default and named instances of SQL Server, as displayed in the Services dialog box.

For SQL Server and SQL Server agents to run as services on Windows, they must run in the context of a Windows user account. Typically, both the SQL Server and the SQL Server agent have the same user account, either the local system or a domain user account. However, you can customize the settings for each service during the installation process. We recommend that these services run under a domain user account, with special permissions assigned to it.

Create service accounts using a domain user account

A domain user account uses Windows authentication. The user name and password used to connect to the operating system are also used to connect to the SQL Server. We recommend that you use a domain user account. Many server-to-server activities perform only with a domain user account, for example:

Remote procedure calls

Replication

Backing up to network drives

Heterogeneous joins that involve remote data sources

Note: Several servers running SQL Server can share the same service user account. When setting up replication, a Publisher and all its Subscribers should share the same service account for the SQL Server service.

Configure a SQL Server service account

When setting up a SQL Server service account, use the following procedure to validate the group policy settings on the SQL Server computer. Various components of Nuix Discover perform better with the appropriate group policies in place.

Note: This is the SQL Service account and not the Nuix Discover Service Account.

On the SQL Server computer, open the Local Group Policy Editor.

In the navigation pane, under Local Computer Policy > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies, select User Rights Assignment.

In the following sections, set the account to be either explicitly listed or part of a group listed:

Adjust memory quotas for a process

Lock pages in memory

Perform volume maintenance tasks

Replace a process level token

Click OK.

Modified SQL component facets

To increase security, SQL Server blocks access to many external objects. To execute external code objects (EXE, DLL, and CLR procedures) outside of the SQL Server environment (required for the Content Search and Analytics modules), the SQL component configures the surface area of SQL Server.

The following table describes the modified items of each SQL instance.

 

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