By: Dale Kelly | Updated: 2012-02-10 | Comments (10) | Related: More > Scripts
Problem
One of my many day to day duties includes administering a database (actually many databases) for a Human Resources application. This application uses SQL logins for data access. This is a database I inherited so I had no input on how things were setup or administered. In the past the application administrator used a script to create new users but the script did not work well and frequently caused errors. When a user is created for the application a SQL login is created then a database user is created in many databases.
Since this script did not work well and I was the one that usually had to clean up the mess I decided to write a new script to create the users. After writing the script I also decided to write another script to delete users since the application did not provide a process for doing this. As I was writing the script to delete users it occurred to me that there may be orphaned users in many of the databases because deleting users has always been a manual process and it would be very easy to miss one. After checking a few databases and finding orphaned users I tried to find a script to clean up these orphaned users and was surprised that I could not find a script on the internet that did what I wanted so I decided to write my own and pass the information on to others.
Solution
What Is An Orphaned SQL User
So, what is an orphaned SQL user? An orphaned user is a database user that does not have an associated SQL login. There are a number of ways a user can become orphaned. The most common way is when a database from a different server is restored. When a database is backed up and restored the database users are also backed up and restored with the database, but the SQL login is not. If a database is restored to the same server the backup came from and the logins already exist then the database users will not be orphaned because security identifiers (SID) will be the same. If a database is restored to a different server and there are logins with the same name chances are the database users will be orphaned because the identifiers are not the same. And if the logins do not exist at all the database users will be orphaned. Another way database users can be orphaned is if the SQL login is deleted without checking for database users.
Find Orphans In All Databases
In my quest, I did find scripts but none did all that I wanted or did it the way I wanted. So I used some of these scripts as models and wrote my own script to get the results I wanted. My purpose in creating this script was twofold. First find all orphaned users in all databases in a server instance and second delete those users if desired. One difficulty encountered when deleting database users is that the user may own objects in the database and cannot be dropped until the object is dropped or ownership is transferred. In my case all users owned a schema so my script had to deal with a schema owned by the user. I wrote the script to store information about orphaned users in a local temporary table, then the temporary table could be used to drop the schema and user.
Find Orphaned Database Users Script
/*************************
*
* Script written by Dale Kelly 11/23/2011
* Revision 1.0
* Purpose: This script searches all databases for orphaned users
* and displays a list. If desired the orphaned users can be deleted
*
***********************/
Use master
Go
Create Table #Orphans
(
RowID int not null primary key identity(1,1) ,
TDBName varchar (100),
UserName varchar (100),
UserSid varbinary(85)
)
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @DBName sysname, @Qry nvarchar(4000)
SET @Qry = ''
SET @DBName = ''
WHILE @DBName IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
SET @DBName =
(
SELECT MIN(name)
FROM master..sysdatabases
WHERE
/** to exclude named databases add them to the Not In clause **/
name NOT IN
(
'model', 'msdb',
'distribution'
) And
DATABASEPROPERTY(name, 'IsOffline') = 0
AND DATABASEPROPERTY(name, 'IsSuspect') = 0
AND name > @DBName
)
IF @DBName IS NULL BREAK
Set @Qry = 'select ''' + @DBName + ''' as DBName, name AS UserName,
sid AS UserSID from [' + @DBName + ']..sysusers
where issqluser = 1 and (sid is not null and sid <> 0x0)
and suser_sname(sid) is null order by name'
Insert into #Orphans Exec (@Qry)
End
Select * from #Orphans
/** To drop orphans uncomment this section
Declare @SQL as varchar (200)
Declare @DDBName varchar (100)
Declare @Orphanname varchar (100)
Declare @DBSysSchema varchar (100)
Declare @From int
Declare @To int
Select @From = 0, @To = @@ROWCOUNT
from #Orphans
--Print @From
--Print @To
While @From < @To
Begin
Set @From = @From + 1
Select @DDBName = TDBName, @Orphanname = UserName from #Orphans
Where RowID = @From
Set @DBSysSchema = '[' + @DDBName + ']' + '.[sys].[schemas]'
print @DBsysSchema
Print @DDBname
Print @Orphanname
set @SQL = 'If Exists (Select * from ' + @DBSysSchema
+ ' where name = ''' + @Orphanname + ''')
Begin
Use ' + @DDBName
+ ' Drop Schema [' + @Orphanname + ']
End'
print @SQL
Exec (@SQL)
Begin Try
Set @SQL = 'Use ' + @DDBName
+ ' Drop User [' + @Orphanname + ']'
Exec (@SQL)
End Try
Begin Catch
End Catch
End
**/
Drop table #Orphans
Things To Note About This Script
Databases can be excluded from the search by adding the database name to exclude in the 'NOT IN' where clause. If the "Drop Orphans' section is uncommented the script will drop any schema that the orphaned user owns then drop the orphaned user, there is no option to skip a schema/user. The script will not check for other objects that may be owned by the user. I have tested the script on SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 R2.
Next Steps
- Copy the code above and paste into Notepad. Save it as a SQL script (.sql).
- As always test the script in a test environment before using in production.
- Execute the script on the server instance you want to check for orphaned users.
- To drop the orphaned users uncomment the 'To drop orphans ...' section (Use with caution!).
- Review the following resources:
About the author
Dale Kelly has been in the computer industry since the late 80s and is currently a Sr. DBA responsible for 26 SQL Servers.This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.
View all my tips
Article Last Updated: 2012-02-10
