Windows group appears to behave differently to a Windows user

  • Hiya,

    I'm having trouble getting a windows user group working correctly. I have an AD user (domain\User1) and an AD group (domain\Group1). domain\User1 is in the group domain\Group1. Checked and double checked. If I add a login in SQL for domain\Group1, and add a user in database1 for the group like this...

    create login [domain\Group1] for windows

    go

    use database1

    go

    create user [domain\Group1]

    the user cannot access the server (login failed for user 'domain\User1')

    However, if I do this...

    create login [domain\User1] for windows

    go

    use database1

    go

    create user [domain\User1]

    the user can login no problem. Why does the user get access only when they are outside of the group?

    Can anyone help me please?

    Thanks,

    Martin

  • Interesting. The user should be able to connect via the group. I am using that on my SQL Server without issue. Do you have multiple domain controllers? Are you sure that the addition of the user to the group has replicated to all domain controllers?

  • That is strange. I would lean towards some kerberos issue. Maybe the user's DC is off for some reason? Is the user remote?

  • Thanks for your replies Jack & Steve.

    We only have one DC and I have now tried the same setup on a different DB server and it works fine; the user can connect to the DB just by being in the group. Also, other users who are in the same AD group behave correctly when the group is added to the server logins. So, the problem seems to be isolated to this particular user, on this single database server.

    Also, the user is not remote - we are all physically in the same place on the same LAN.

    As you guys say in the States "go figure!"

  • In desperation, I rebooted the DB server and now it works fine. Still no idea what the problem is but after spending a day looking, I don't care much.

    Thanks again for your help.

  • You should check your Windows Event Log and SQL Server Error Log because it sounds like it was having some issues communicating with AD.

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