Accessing database ports that are required to be closed due to PCI Compliance on Windows Server 2008

Question

I've got a client that is hosted on a dedicated Windows 2008 Server that we look after. They have recently failed a PCI Compliance check which is asking that we close the ports for SQL Server and MySQL (1433 and 3306).

If we do this we'll loose access to the database from all the hosted website on the server. Is there a way around this or can we connect to the databases whilst still closing the ports?

Thanks

Answer 1

Yes, you can change the port for SQL Server to use a non-default port setting. As long as the port for the SQL Server browser remains open, instances will still be able to retrieve the correct SQL port from the server instance. This is now named instances of SQL Server function while using a dynamic port.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823938