I believe I’ve come up with an improvement to sp_help_revlogin.
Transferring a login from one server to another is one of those learning experiences we all go through. If you just do CREATE LOGIN on another server the login in the master database usually gets a different ID. When you restore the database on the other server, the ID of the user in the database doesn’t match the ID of the login in master and so the login can’t access the database. (And, as they say, ‘hilarity ensues’.)
A better way to move the login is to use a Microsoft stored procedure sp_help_revlogin (read more here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918992/) to generate a script that will re-create the login with the same ID. But I noticed it doesn’t include the login’s default language, which is something that can have a major impact on things like whether the account can re-use existing cached query plans. So I’ve added this element.
Instead of this:
CREATE LOGIN [loginX]
WITH PASSWORD = 0x02<snip>9E HASHED
, SID = 0x8E<snip>80
, DEFAULT_DATABASE = [databaseY]
, CHECK_POLICY = ON
, CHECK_EXPIRATION = OFF
you now get this:
create login [loginX]
with password = 0x02<snip>9E hashed
, sid = 0x8E<snip>80
, default_database = [databaseY]
, default_language = [us_english]
, check_policy = on
, check_expiration = off
(While I was at it, I changed the output to lower case because that’s how I like to code.)
Here’s the new version of the procedure with the altered lines highlighted:
/*
Purpose: To script out logins for copying to another server.
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918992/
Modifications: I added the default language.
*/
use master;
go
IF OBJECT_ID ('sp_hexadecimal') IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE sp_hexadecimal
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_hexadecimal
@binvalue varbinary(256),
@hexvalue varchar (514) OUTPUT
AS
DECLARE @charvalue varchar (514)
DECLARE @i int
DECLARE @length int
DECLARE @hexstring char(16)
SELECT @charvalue = '0x'
SELECT @i = 1
SELECT @length = DATALENGTH (@binvalue)
SELECT @hexstring = '0123456789ABCDEF'
WHILE (@i &amp;lt;= @length)
BEGIN
DECLARE @tempint int
DECLARE @firstint int
DECLARE @secondint int
SELECT @tempint = CONVERT(int, SUBSTRING(@binvalue,@i,1))
SELECT @firstint = FLOOR(@tempint/16)
SELECT @secondint = @tempint - (@firstint*16)
SELECT @charvalue = @charvalue +
SUBSTRING(@hexstring, @firstint+1, 1) +
SUBSTRING(@hexstring, @secondint+1, 1)
SELECT @i = @i + 1
END
SELECT @hexvalue = @charvalue
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('sp_help_revlogin') IS NOT NULL
DROP PROCEDURE sp_help_revlogin
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_help_revlogin @login_name sysname = NULL AS
DECLARE @name sysname
DECLARE @type varchar (1)
DECLARE @hasaccess int
DECLARE @denylogin int
DECLARE @is_disabled int
DECLARE @PWD_varbinary varbinary (256)
DECLARE @PWD_string varchar (514)
DECLARE @SID_varbinary varbinary (85)
DECLARE @SID_string varchar (514)
DECLARE @tmpstr varchar (1024)
DECLARE @is_policy_checked varchar (3)
DECLARE @is_expiration_checked varchar (3)
DECLARE @defaultdb sysname
DECLARE @defaultlanguage sysname
IF (@login_name IS NULL)
DECLARE login_curs CURSOR FOR
SELECT p.sid, p.name, p.type, p.is_disabled, p.default_database_name, p.default_language_name, l.hasaccess, l.denylogin FROM
sys.server_principals p LEFT JOIN sys.syslogins l
ON ( l.name = p.name ) WHERE p.type IN ( 'S', 'G', 'U' ) AND p.name &amp;lt;&amp;gt; 'sa'
ELSE
DECLARE login_curs CURSOR FOR
SELECT p.sid, p.name, p.type, p.is_disabled, p.default_database_name, p.default_language_name, l.hasaccess, l.denylogin FROM
sys.server_principals p LEFT JOIN sys.syslogins l
ON ( l.name = p.name ) WHERE p.type IN ( 'S', 'G', 'U' ) AND p.name = @login_name
OPEN login_curs
FETCH NEXT FROM login_curs INTO @SID_varbinary, @name, @type, @is_disabled, @defaultdb, @defaultlanguage, @hasaccess, @denylogin
IF (@@fetch_status = -1)
BEGIN
PRINT 'No login(s) found.'
CLOSE login_curs
DEALLOCATE login_curs
RETURN -1
END
SET @tmpstr = '/* sp_help_revlogin script '
PRINT @tmpstr
SET @tmpstr = '** Generated ' + CONVERT (varchar, GETDATE()) + ' on ' + @@SERVERNAME + ' */'
PRINT @tmpstr
PRINT ''
WHILE (@@fetch_status &amp;lt;&amp;gt; -1)
BEGIN
IF (@@fetch_status &amp;lt;&amp;gt; -2)
BEGIN
PRINT ''
SET @tmpstr = '-- Login: ' + @name
PRINT @tmpstr
IF (@type IN ( 'G', 'U'))
BEGIN -- NT authenticated account/group
SET @tmpstr = 'create login ' + QUOTENAME( @name ) + ' from windows with default_database = [' + @defaultdb + '], default_language = [' + @defaultlanguage + ']'
END
ELSE BEGIN -- SQL Server authentication
-- obtain password and sid
SET @PWD_varbinary = CAST( LOGINPROPERTY( @name, 'PasswordHash' ) AS varbinary (256) )
EXEC sp_hexadecimal @PWD_varbinary, @PWD_string OUT
EXEC sp_hexadecimal @SID_varbinary,@SID_string OUT
-- obtain password policy state
SELECT @is_policy_checked = CASE is_policy_checked WHEN 1 THEN 'ON' WHEN 0 THEN 'OFF' ELSE NULL END FROM sys.sql_logins WHERE name = @name
SELECT @is_expiration_checked = CASE is_expiration_checked WHEN 1 THEN 'ON' WHEN 0 THEN 'OFF' ELSE NULL END FROM sys.sql_logins WHERE name = @name
SET @tmpstr = 'create login ' + QUOTENAME( @name ) + ' with password = ' + @PWD_string + ' hashed, sid = ' + @SID_string + ', default_database = [' + @defaultdb + '], default_language = [' + @defaultlanguage + ']'
IF ( @is_policy_checked IS NOT NULL )
BEGIN
SET @tmpstr = @tmpstr + ', check_policy = ' + @is_policy_checked
END
IF ( @is_expiration_checked IS NOT NULL )
BEGIN
SET @tmpstr = @tmpstr + ', check_expiration = ' + @is_expiration_checked
END
END
IF (@denylogin = 1)
BEGIN -- login is denied access
SET @tmpstr = @tmpstr + '; deny connect sql to ' + QUOTENAME( @name )
END
ELSE IF (@hasaccess = 0)
BEGIN -- login exists but does not have access
SET @tmpstr = @tmpstr + '; revoke connect sql to ' + QUOTENAME( @name )
END
IF (@is_disabled = 1)
BEGIN -- login is disabled
SET @tmpstr = @tmpstr + '; alter login ' + QUOTENAME( @name ) + ' disable'
END
PRINT @tmpstr
END
FETCH NEXT FROM login_curs INTO @SID_varbinary, @name, @type, @is_disabled, @defaultdb, @defaultlanguage, @hasaccess, @denylogin
END
CLOSE login_curs
DEALLOCATE login_curs
RETURN 0
GO
You can download the code here.
David Wimbush 