Adding a domain user in SQL Server Management Studio

Question

Before I ask my question, let me mention that my SQL Server is installed on a member server of a domain (it belongs to the domain but is not an AD server).

I am having trouble adding a network user in SQL Server Management Studio.

First I tried adding a user by right-clicking security and clicking new -> login. I wanted to add a network user, so I clicked locations. But only the name of the local server was showing. I was unable to browse my domain users (at that time I was logged in through a network user on my SQL Server machine).

So I tried another approach. I tried to add a network user through Transact-SQL as follows:

create login [domain\user] from windows;

But I got an error message saying - Windows NT user or group not found - even though the user existed on my domain server.

What am I doing wrong?

• Kassandry: Could you please let us know your version of SQL Server and other software you are working with to make it easier to answer your question? =)
• Viggos: Are you sure that the server is joined to that domain from where you are trying to add the user from?

Answer 1

For me it worked to generate a script with SSMS.

USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [domain\user] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
GO
ALTER SERVER ROLE [role] ADD MEMBER [domian\user]
GO