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Prerequisites for the Log Database

Prepare your environment for a successful Nodinite Log Database deployment. This page provides a comprehensive checklist, technical requirements, and best practices to ensure a secure, high-performing, and future-proof installation.

What you'll find on this page:

✅ Complete checklist for all technical prerequisites
✅ SQL Server, Windows, and firewall rights explained
✅ Best practices for distributed and secure environments
✅ Linked server and SPN configuration guidance
✅ Troubleshooting tips and links to further resources

This page describes the prerequisites to successfully install and run the Nodinite Log Database. The Log Database is a SQL Server database and is installed in a SQL Server instance.

Nodinite Log Database Checklist

The Log Database sits at the end of the "spider web." On a single box machine, you may have virtually no administration at all to get everything working. In a locked-down distributed environment spanning multiple servers with network load balancing, firewalls, network zones (WLANs), domains, DNS, group policies, and antivirus/antimalware, you may spend many hours getting every piece of the puzzle in place.

Rest assured, Nodinite is built on Microsoft standard products—the foundation for most enterprise business applications today. We are working hard on cloud-enabling Nodinite as required services mature, one piece at a time, to ensure you get a future-proof solution for your business.

Verified Topic
SQL Server
MSDTC
Windows rights
Trusted for delegation
Register SPN
Database rights
Firewall
Linked Server(s)

Use the checklist above to verify that you have performed all steps required to get Nodinite flying (most probably already managed when you performed similar tasks for the Configuration Database).

SQL Server

Please review the Microsoft SQL Server user guide for general information.

Important

It's you (or your IT-organization/hosting partner/...) responsibility to make sure a backup of the Log Database is regularly taken, at least once per day

You can run SQL Server on Windows Servers implemented on physical machines, virtual machines, and in the cloud. The actual Windows version used must match the prerequisites for Microsoft SQL Server version being used.

Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC)

The Log Database is involved in all SQL Server-related operations and Nodinite uses the Windows Service Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) that is responsible for coordinating transactions that span multiple resource managers. We have written a dedicated tutorial for Nodinite with our best practices for how to install and configure the DTC Windows Service.

You must configure the DTC as documented, otherwise, Nodinite will not be operational

What Windows rights does the Log Database require?

Nodinite keeps the identity of the user account for running Core Services-related threads when traversing servers on your network. This means for example that when the Logging Service fetches data from Log Databases and/or BizTalk tracking database it will be the configured account that performs the remote operation. For the Windows Integrated Security to be able to pass and authenticate the user identity across servers all tasks outlined in the checklist at the beginning of this tutorial must be properly configured.

The Log Database is a SQL Server database and is installed as part of the Core Services package. Since the Log Database is a SQL Server database, you must use a Windows account that has been configured with the appropriate rights in SQL Server, see SQL Server database rights.

Trusted for delegation

This topic is detailed in the Trusted for delegation user guide.

Register SPN

When running Nodinite in a distributed environment, Kerberos requires all SQL Instances (both physical node names and cluster names) to have their Service Principal Names (SPNs) registered in Active Directory.

Tip

Comprehensive SPN Guide: See the Service Principal Names (SPN) page for:

  • When SPN registration is required (distributed environments, linked servers, AOAG)
  • Registration commands for default instances, named instances, and clusters
  • Scenario-specific examples (single instance, failover cluster, Always On Availability Groups)
  • Validation with Microsoft Kerberos Configuration Manager tool
  • Troubleshooting common Kerberos authentication issues

What SQL Rights does the Log Database require?

For performance reasons, the following Core Services accesses the Log Databases through the linked server from the Configuration Database using as default the Windows Service Account configured.

graph LR subgraph SQL Server roConfigDatabase(fal:fa-database Configuration Database) --- |Linked Server| roLogDatabase(fal:fa-database fal:fa-database fal:fa-database Log databases) end

What Firewall settings are required for the Log Database?

The Log Database requires proper firewall configuration for communication between Nodinite Core Services, SQL Server instances, and domain controllers.

Key Communication Paths:

  1. Nodinite Application Server → Configuration Database → Log Databases — Core Services access Log Databases via Linked Servers
  2. Log Databases ↔ Other SQL Server Instances — Linked Server queries when databases span multiple instances
  3. All Servers → Domain Controllers — Kerberos authentication and DNS resolution
graph LR subgraph "SQL Server" roConfigDatabase(fal:fa-database Config Database) --- |Linked Server| roLogDatabase(fal:fa-database fal:fa-database fal:fa-database Log databases) end subgraph "Application Server" roLogAPI(fal:fa-cloud-arrow-down Log API) --- |SQL, DTC, DNS, RPC, ...|roConfigDatabase roWebAPI(fal:fa-cloud Web API) roWebAPI --- |SQL, DTC, DNS, RPC, ...|roConfigDatabase roLoggingService(fal:fa-hard-drive Logging Service) --- |SQL, DTC, DNS, RPC, ...|roConfigDatabase roMonitoringService(fal:fa-watch-fitness Monitoring Service) --- |SQL, DTC, DNS, RPC, ...|roConfigDatabase end

Tip

Comprehensive Firewall Guide: See the complete SQL Server Firewall Configuration page for:

  • Detailed port requirements for on-premise SQL Server
  • Azure SQL Managed Instance firewall configuration
  • Always On Availability Groups (AOAG) firewall rules
  • Troubleshooting common connectivity issues
  • Testing connectivity with PowerShell commands

Nodinite requires Linked Servers to be configured on the Configuration Database SQL instance to access Log Databases, BizTalk databases, and other remote SQL resources. Linked servers are always required, even when all databases reside on the same SQL Server instance.

Tip

Comprehensive Linked Servers Guide: See the complete Linked Servers page for:

  • When and why linked servers are required (always, regardless of database distribution)
  • Configuration commands for default instances, named instances, clusters, and AOAG
  • RPC and RPC Out settings for distributed transactions
  • Security context configuration for Windows authentication
  • Always On Availability Groups (AOAG) listener configuration
  • Failover cluster considerations
  • Troubleshooting common linked server connectivity issues

Quick Reference - Linked Server Names:

Environment Default Instance Named Instance
Stand Alone localhost OR ServerName localhost\instancename
Fail-Over Cluster ClusterName ClusterName\instancename
Always On (AOAG) ListenerName ListenerName\instancename

Important

Required Linked Servers for Nodinite: Before installing, create linked servers from the Configuration Database SQL instance to:

  • Local and remote Nodinite Log Databases
  • BizTalk BizTalkMGMTDb and BizTalkDTADb (if using BizTalk logging)
  • Dynamics 365 databases (if using Dynamics 365 monitoring)
  • Any other custom databases Nodinite needs to query

Frequently asked questions

Common problems and the FAQ for the Log Database can be found on the Troubleshooting page.

Next Step

Install Nodinite
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