Azure SQL

Rotating Admin/Regular Azure SQL Database Users with Keeper

Overview

In this guide, you'll learn how to rotate passwords for Azure SQL Database Users and Admin accounts on your Azure environment using Keeper Rotation. Azure SQL is an Azure managed resource where the SQL Admin Credentials are defined in the PAM Database record type and the configurations of the SQL Users are defined in the PAM User record type.

For Azure Managed SQL database, the Azure SDK will be used to rotate the password of Database Admin Accounts. To rotate the passwords of Regular Database Users, Keeper connects to the DB instance with the linked admin credentials and executes the necessary SQL statements to change the password.

• See the Azure Overview for a high level overview and getting started with Azure

Prerequisites

This guide assumes the following tasks have already taken place:

• Rotation enforcements are configured for your role

• A Keeper Secrets Manager application has been created

• Your Azure environment is configured per our documentation

• Your Keeper Gateway is online

• The Keeper Gateway is able to communicate with your Azure SQL Server Database

• If the Gateway is installed on a Linux or macOS server, install the Microsoft ODBC driver

• Your Azure environment is configured per our documentation

1. Set up a PAM Database Record

The PAM Database record links to admin credentials and contains the necessary configurations to connect to the SQL Server on Azure. Keeper Rotation will use these provided configurations to rotate passwords of regular database user accounts in the Azure SQL Server instance. These provided admin credentials need to also have sufficient database permissions to successfully change the credentials of the database user accounts.

The following table lists all the required fields on the PAM Database Record:

Field	Description
Title	Keeper record title Ex: Azure SQL Admin
Hostname or IP Address	The Database Server name i.e testdb-sql.mssql.database.azure.com
Port	For default ports, see port mapping Ex: 1433
Use SSL	Check to perform SSL verification before connecting, if your database has SSL configured
Administrative Credentials	PAM User providing the Admin account username and password that will perform rotation. If the admin in the DB user table is in a Host other than %, add the Host value to the user name as USERNAME@SERVERNAME
Connect Database	Optional database that will be used when connecting to the database server. For example, MS SQL server requires a database and so this will default to master.
Database ID	Name of the Azure Database Server i.e. testdb-sql
Database Type	mssql
Provider Group	Azure Resource group name
Provider Region	Azure Resource region i.e. East US

Note: Adding Provider Group, Provider Region, and Database ID will enable managing the PAM Database Record through the Azure SDK.

This PAM Database Record with the linked admin credential needs to be in a shared folder that is shared to the KSM application created in the pre-requisites. Only the KSM application needs access to this privileged account, it does not need to be shared with any users.

2. Set up PAM Configuration

Note: You can skip this step if you already have a PAM Configuration set up for this environment.

If you are creating a new PAM Configuration, login to the Keeper Vault and select "Secrets Manager", then select the "PAM Configurations" tab, and click on "New Configuration". The following table lists all the required fields on the PAM Configuration Record:

Field	Description
Title	Configuration name, example: Azure DB Configuration
Environment	Select: Azure Network
Gateway	Select the Gateway that is configured on the Keeper Secrets Manager application and has network access to your Azure SQL database from the pre-requisites
Application Folder	Select the Shared folder where the PAM Configuration will be stored. We recommend placing this in a shared folder with the PAM User records.
Azure ID	A unique ID for this instance of Azure. This is for your reference and can be anything, but its recommended to be kept short Ex: Azure-Prod
Client ID	The unique Application (client) ID assigned to your app by Azure AD when the application was registered
Client Secret	The client credentials secret for the Azure application
Subscription ID	The UUID that identifies your subscription (i.e. Pay-As-You-GO) to use Azure services.
Tenant ID	The UUID of the Azure Active Directory

For more details on all the configurable fields in the PAM Configuration record, visit this page.

3. Set up one or more PAM User records

Keeper Rotation will use the linked credentials in the PAM Database record to rotate the PAM User records on your Azure environment. The PAM User credential needs to be in a shared folder that is shared to the KSM application created in the prerequisites.

The following table lists all the required fields on the PAM User record:

Field	Description
Title	Keeper record title i.e. Azure DB User1
Login	Case sensitive username of the account being rotated. If the user in the DB user table is in a Host other than %, add the Host value to the user name as USERNAME@SERVERNAME
Password	Account password is optional, rotation will set one if blank
Connect Database	Optional database that will be used when connecting to the database server. For example, MS SQL server requires a database and so this will default to master.

4. Configure Rotation on the PAM User records

Select the PAM User record(s) from Step 3, edit the record and open the "Password Rotation Settings".

• Select the desired schedule and password complexity.

• The "Rotation Settings" should use the PAM Configuration setup previously.

• The "Resource Credential" field should select the PAM Database credential setup from Step 1.

• Upon saving, the rotation button will be enabled and available to rotate on demand, or via the selected schedule.

Any user with edit rights to a PAM User record has the ability to setup rotation for that record.