Sysadmin role locked

  • We set up a SQL Server 2005 box. When we set it up we did it with windows authentication, so the sa account is disabled. After everything was set up we were going to do some locking down. We added a domain account and gave it sysadmin rights. Next we went in to the sysadmin role and deleted the builtin/administrators group. This deleted all users except for the sa account. The sa account is disabled and we don't have a password for it. Not sure what to do next. Is there anyway to salvage this without have to completely reinstall? I can't enable sa because it says I don't have the rights, I can't add anyone to the sysadmin role because I don't have the rights. Why did it delete my domain account in the first place?

  • Something else must have happened. Remove BUILTIN/Adminstrators from the sysadmin role should have only removed that role.

    When you say it deleted all logins, how do you connect now? What do you see in the security/logins folder?

    If you don't have an admin, you can set the mixed mode of SQL Server (if you only activated SQL Server authentication) via the registry:

    Default instance:

    "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSqlserver\MSSqlServer\LoginMode"

    to 2 for mixed-mode or 1 for integrated.

  • One way in should be the SQL Server service account itself. If you have a local or domain account, you can login as it and that should give you sysadmin rights. If it's running as local System, there's always the trick of using AT to start cmd.exe interactively. Then you can use sqlwb.exe to bring up SQL Server Management Studio.

    K. Brian Kelley
    @kbriankelley

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