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.