Preparing a Microsoft SQL Server Installation

Prior to creating a Laserfiche repository whose underlying structure depends on Microsoft SQL Server, we recommend that you create an empty database. By manually creating your SQL database, you can immediately optimize it to best suit the needs of your installation, including determining where the database will be stored, how the database will grow, where logs and other supplemental information will be stored, security, and a backup strategy.

We strongly recommend installing your SQL server on a different computer than your Laserfiche server for best performance. In addition, note that the tempdb database on the SQL server that is used by Laserfiche can grow very large. It is important that you leave enough free disc space on the SQL server computer to allow tempdb to grow. For most installations, 10 GB of space is sufficient, but large or high-load repositories may result in much larger tempdb files. We recommend monitoring the size of tempdb once your installation has been running for some time, and allocating space for it accordingly.

Note: It is not necessary to pre-create your Microsoft SQL Server database. The Laserfiche Repository Creation Wizard can create this database for you when you create your repository.

Note: All SQL tables for the database associated with the Laserfiche repository must be owned by "dbo." If a SQL table is not owned by dbo, you will need to change the owner of that table to dbo.

To prepare a Microsoft SQL Server installation

1. Create an empty SQL database.
• Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
1. Start Microsoft SQL Server Studio Management.
2. Establish a connection to the desired SQL Server using the Connect to Server dialog box. In the Server type option, select "Database Engine." In the Server name option, specify the name of the desired SQL Server. In the Authentication option, determine if you will use SQL Server or Windows authentication to authenticate to the specified SQL Server. If you choose SQL Server authentication, specify a user name and password. Click Connect to establish a connection to the SQL Server.
3. From the Object Explorer pane, right-click on the Database item and select New Database. The New Database dialog box will appear.
4. In the Database name option, specify the name that will be assigned to the new database.
5. The Initial Size (MB) column in the Database files table indicates the initial file size of the SQL database and transaction log file that will be created. You can use the default value for this setting.
6. To store the database and transaction log file in a location other than the default one, scroll the Database files table until you reach the Path column and specify the desired path for each file type. If you are unsure of the exact path to the desired location, click Browse (...) select the desired folder, and click OK.
7. The Autogrowth column in the Database files table indicates the rules governing how the SQL database and transaction log files will grow. You can use the default value for this setting.
8. Click OK to create the SQL database.
• Enterprise Manager
1. Start SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
2. Expand Microsoft SQL Servers, a server group, and select the desired server. If your SQL Server is not listed, register it. For more information on registering a SQL Server, see your SQL Server documentation.
3. From the Tools menu, select Wizards. The Select Wizard dialog box will appear.
4. Expand Database and select Create Database Wizard.
5. Click OK to open the Create Database Wizard.
6. Click Next to specify the database name and the file system location for the SQL database and the transaction log.
7. Click Next to determine the initial file size of your database. You can accept the default value, however, if you want to assign a larger initial value to the database, allocate at least 50 MB for the Laserfiche repository and at least 15 MB for every 1,000 records that you plan to have in your initial database.
8. Click Next to determine the growth rates for the SQL database and transaction log. The default values are acceptable for these settings.
9. Complete the wizard to create your database.
2. Configure a backup procedure for the newly created database. A SQL database backup routine can be created from the SQL Server Maintenance Plan Wizard (SQL Server Management Studio) or the Database Maintenance Plan Wizard (Enterprise Manager). It is strongly recommended that you set up automated nightly backups for all of your databases.
3. During the creation of a Laserfiche repository, you will be prompted to choose how Laserfiche will authenticate to SQL Server. You will need to make sure that the specified Windows or SQL Server login account can access SQL Server and is the owner of any SQL databases associated with your Laserfiche repositories. An additional requirement of a SQL Server login account is that you will have to configure SQL Server to use mixed mode authentication.

Important:  If you plan on using Windows authentication when creating or registering a Laserfiche repository, you will need to make sure that the Windows account assigned to the Laserfiche Server can access SQL Server and has been granted the dbcreator fixed server role.

Note: By default, domain administrators and local administrators on the computer hosting SQL Server can access SQL Server and are granted the sysadmin server role.

Warning: Laserfiche Server does not support databases where the XACT_ABORT option is turned on.

Microsoft SQL Server required privileges

The Laserfiche Server service requires certain minimum privileges to create a repository: the user must be allowed to log in to SQL Server and create a database.

First, you will need to create or specify a Windows user account that the Laserfiche server service will log in as. (Alternately, you can enable SQL Server Login, and create a user in SQL Server.) The user must be able to log in to the SQL Server and create databases, but does not need to be a domain administrator. You can grant the user the ability to create databases in one of two ways: by granting the dbcreator fixed server role or by adding the user to the Local Administrators group on the server computer. While adding the user to Local Administrators is simple, it may not be desirable if you want to minimize the number of users with administrator privileges.

If you do not want to add the server service user to any fixed server roles, you can create the database manually and grant the user account full access to the database by making that user the database owner. This will grant the server service user access to the Laserfiche database without granting the ability to create other databases. 

For more information on a specific repository administration topic, return to the repository administration home page.