One of the newer features in Data Masker for SQL Server is the ability to read column classifications and suggest rules to clean the data. I decided to give this a try and see how things work.
Importing Column Classifications
I created a new Masking Set, and I do like the new connection dialog. It works well makes it easy for me to focus my masking on a schema.
From here, I went to the Tables tab to check on the classifications. I didn’t see any, which felt slightly strange.
I went back to SSMS and double checked my work. I do have things classified.
After a quick reach out to the team, I remembered that a plan is an item you need to create and save. In this case, the feature is importing information from the database. I can then work with it in a plan. To get the data, I click the “Export/Import Plan” button at the bottom of the Tables tab.
This brings me a dialog of the plan details. I can choose to import a plan from a CSV file, or from the SSMS classifications. I’ll choose the latter.
Note: plans are specific to a controller. If I have two controllers, I need to import the plan into both (or all). When I click “Import”, the data is added to my plan. I can see that now there are four columns classified.
If I expand one of these nodes, like the Users table, I see that there are columns marked as sensitive and the comment includes the classification. That’s very handy for deciding how to mask the data.
Another welcome improvement is that I can change my plan sensitivity for all the columns in a table at once. In this case, I’ll right click the Sensitivity column for a table. I can then pick “Check”.
Once I do this, all columns are set to check for this table.
I can also multi-select columns (with the CTRL key held down) and then right click. In this case, I can pick three and then choose “sensitive”.
They’ll all be set, and I can see that I need to get to work.
Quick Rules
One other nice thing is that I can create a rule for multiple columns at once. If I have a few selected, I can right click and create a rule. I’ll choose Substitution rule here.
This brings me up a dialog with the columns already in my rule, and now I can pick the specific customizations I need for each.
It’s a little thing, but it greatly speeds up the process of masking data.
Give It A Try
Data Masker is part of SQL Provision, and it’s an amazing tool that allows me to mask data in almost any way I can think of to protect data in non production environments.
There are some other nice enhancements in this v6.3.13.x release. If you haven’t given Data Masker a try, do so today.