QOD 03 Sep 2003

  • Hmm interesting question and somewhat subjective "what is the best". Personally, I wouldn't use the given answer. That's because I find EM a slow cumbersome app which I try to avoid. Also, through Control Panel I can change SQL Agent account etc. too. I don't know what the answer means by "proper permissions given to the account" etc. Never ever had a problem. If you've set the account up in the first place you shouldn't have a problem. Also I find it easier if you're running in a clusteres environment not to do this as it will by default stop and start the services. MS recommend you do this via the cluster administration tool.

  • Hi

    If your running a cluster, then fine, but the question didnt mention it.

    The EM is the best way to go, running these for you after the change..

    exec sp_grantlogin N'mydomain\sqlserveruser'

    exec sp_addsrvrolemember N'mydomain\sqlserveruser', sysadmin

    and probably a more informative message of sorts.

    Cheers

    Ck

    Chris Kempster

    http://www.chriskempster.com

    Author of "SQL Server 2k for the Oracle DBA"


    Chris Kempster
    www.chriskempster.com
    Author of "SQL Server Backup, Recovery & Troubleshooting"
    Author of "SQL Server 2k for the Oracle DBA"

  • I think maybe the wording needs a bit of tweaking personally. Instead of "best way" (which is subjective) maybe what is the "MS standard way" or something less subjective, good question but mutliple answers that can fit the description based on the individual.

  • quote:


    I think maybe the wording needs a bit of tweaking personally. Instead of "best way" (which is subjective) maybe what is the "MS standard way" or something less subjective, good question but mutliple answers that can fit the description based on the individual.


    The main reason for choosing the "best of" words was because the other ways just don't work 100%. They may appear to work but they don't change over key registry keys to reflect the new user.

    Brian Knight

    bknight@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bknight

  • This is espically true now people are running sql server without admin rights (finally).

    If the registry keys are not changed you have problems.

    Steven

  • Does anyone know specifically what problems the server will have using the services app in the control panel?

    - Vega



    - Vega

  • ooooh.. I didn't think about the permissions aspect of changing the service profile. I answered correct, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why EM would be the better choice. In the back of my head I was thinking there might be something more to changing the service profile than simply changing the profile

    On an interesting note, I just pulled up BOL to see what the gods have written. BOL has instructions for changing the service profiles through Windows Control Panel, but it also states to go into EM afterwards and do the same thing.. It seemed silly, but I figure if your SQL Server can't start for some reason, you need the option of changing the service profile in Control Panel.


    -Ken

  • I still have not seen any answer to the question: what permission problems (or missing registry keys) will arise if I choose to change the account in Control Panel / Services? Please be SPECIFIC!

  • When you change the service account (or service password) via EM it also ensures that the account has rights to certain registry keys, directories, rights and synchronizes the MS Search password.

    (See 'Changing Passwords and User Accounts' in BOL for more details.)

    Changing it via control panel does not, hence you can find that full text service cannot get into the database hence doesn't populate.

    In one case I've seen it where sql does not have permission to open its own database files.

    Steven

  • The account I use is a Domain Account with local Admin rights. Will that eliminate the potential problems?

  • I don't think it would get rid of the full-text problem as that service runs as a local admin and the passwords need to be kepted in synch.

    Steven

  • I think that the question was ambiguously worded and the answer subjective. I just had an incident on 9/2 where I was unable to change the account through EM. The account that MSSQLSERVER ran under had been locked out due to password policy violations. EM would not let me do anything with that instance. The only way to change the account was through services. The account that I changed it to had been set up properly in advance of changing it.

    You are certainly right that EM is the best way to change the account and validate account settings if you don't understand all of the ramifications. However, it is not the "best way" to change only the account. It's hard for me to suppose that a tool that doesn't always work is the best way, IMO.

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