Well, I have seen that a lot of people get local administrator access on servers.
Sql server sa account locked out windows#
What's the point of removing sysadmin from BUILTIN\Administrators group if you can do that?Tara Kizer Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server Subscribe to my blog Instead of the usual default of local administrators having access by default. The point really is that someone has to actually add themselves to that group to gain access. I have found it's a very convenient way to gain access when someone sets up a SQL Server and forgets to give me access. The trick of adding your login to the SQLServerMSSQLUser$ComputerName$MSSQLSERVER group is something I came up with myself, but it seems to work, and you do not have to restart SQL Server in single user mode. It does make it important to secure the Windows server.I'm not giving away any secrets, since Microsoft was kind enough to document the procedure in the article in SQL Server 2005 Books online. There was a lively debate about that on the SSC article discussion, but in the end it just comes down to "that's the way Microsoft did it, so that’s the way it is". Wow, what's the point of locking it down if you can "break-in" like that?Tara Kizer Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server Subscribe to my blog There are several ways to get into a SQL Server 2005 instance as long as you are a local Windows administrator.You can gain access to SQL Server 2005 by adding your Windows login to one of the following local groups on the server, depending on if it is default or named instance (replace ComputerName and InstanceName with the actual names)Default instance: SQLServerMSSQLUser$ComputerName$MSSQLSERVERNamed instance: SQLServerMSSQLUser$ComputerName$InstanceNameYou can refer to the following article and the related discussion for other methods:How to Connect to a SQL 2005 Server When You Are Completely Locked Out CODO ERGO SUM Unless someone knows a back way in, I'm afraid we are going to have to restore the master database from backup. DoD STIG security requirements forced the removal of the user/group. We were forced to remove BUILTIN\Administrators by the DoD.ĭoD contractor lost the sa pwd? Oh the irony no offense intended.just having a little fun with yaĭidn't lose the password. So unless someone removed the sysadmin privilege from the BUILTIN\Administrators group, then you should be able to easily fix this.Tara Kizer Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server Subscribe to my blog By default, local admins have sysadmin inside SQL Server. Check with whoever is a local admin on the server. I don't think our Windows admin accounts have the necessary privileges. We do not use Windows Authentications for the database. You don't have a windows account that is admin? You'll need to restore the master database.Tara Kizer Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server Subscribe to my blog Can we restore just the account information or will we need to restore the whole database?
Sql server sa account locked out password#
We know the password and it is the same on our secondary server. If you don't have any local admin Windows accounts that are sysadmins, then you are stuck reinstalling SQL Server.Tara Kizer Microsoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Server Subscribe to my blog If you restore it, you still won't know the password. How can we reset/unlock the sa account if that is the only sysadmin account? Can we restore from a backup? We've got lots of great SQL ServerĮxperts to answer whatever question you can come up with.