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kevinfr820's avatar
kevinfr820
Copper Contributor
Jun 20, 2025

Change SQL Login to AD service account for Link server

Hi Everyone,   I tried to change account used to impersonate from SQL account to AD service account for link server however im getting below error. The AD service account has sys admin rights on th...
bandaruajeyudu's avatar
bandaruajeyudu
Brass Contributor
Jul 01, 2025

Hi kevinfr820​ ,

this usually happens when the AD service account is not properly mapped for the linked server connection. Please try using sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @useself = false and specify the AD account under @rmtuser. Also, make sure Kerberos delegation is set up correctly and SPNs are registered for both servers. That should fix the login mapping error. here is the sample script

EXEC sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 
    @rmtsrvname = 'YourLinkedServerName',         -- name of your linked server
    @useself = 'false',                           -- use remote credentials
    @locallogin = NULL,                           -- NULL = applies to all local logins
    @rmtuser = 'DOMAIN\ServiceAccountName',       -- your AD service account
    @rmtpassword = NULL  --Update the password

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/linked-servers/create-linked-servers-sql-server-database-engine?view=sql-server-ver17

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