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Row-Level Security Setup in SQL Server

Ben Johnston configures row-level security in SQL Server:

Implementing RLS is as much a business endeavour as technical. Without a business case to implement RLS, there is no reason for the extra effort and testing involved. This is where driving out business requirements and making sure the solution fits the problem is important. Non-technical members of the team or business partners likely won’t know what RLS is or if it should be used. Differential access to the same data, replacing systems (or proposed systems) with multiple reports based on user groups, and multi-tenant access are possible indicators that RLS may be a useful tool. There are always multiple ways to solve a problem. If RLS would simplify the design and make it more robust, that’s when I start to seriously consider it for a design. It does help if the business is aware of RLS and have used it in other projects or databases, but having the business essentially design the system is dangerous too. Use all of the information available during planning sessions and design the system that best fits the need of the business and the skills of the technical team.

Read the whole thing. I’m particularly interested in this series, as I’ve liked row-level security and didn’t find any trivial workarounds or exploits, but also hate how slow it is once you’re dealing with large datasets.