SQL admin Scripts - Enabling read only access to all databases I would like a script that will allow our web developers read only access to all databases on our SQL server.

Currently we are having to do this manually as we have no SQL expert / DB Admin.

Would somebody be able to help me out by creating a script that will add there windows user to SQL and Grant Read only access to all databases.

Occasionally they will need read / write access on a specific database so we can change this manually but I would like a script that we can schedule overnight that will change the access back if we forget.

Any help is much appreciated.

Regards
If you have a list of known usernames, you can store them in a table somewhere:

CREATE TABLE dbo.WebDevelopers(name SYSNAME PRIMARY KEY);

INSERT dbo.WebDevelopers(name)
  SELECT N'YourDomain\User1'
  UNION ALL 
  SELECT N'YourDomain\User2';


Now you can create a variety of scripts to ensure that:


they exist as a login at the server level
for each relevant database:


they exist as a user
they are in the db_datareader role
they have SELECT permission on the dbo schema



Here is a start to solve 1. (I'll come back and address the others as I have time later today):

DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX), @cr NCHAR(2) = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10);

SELECT @sql = N'';

SELECT @sql = @sql + @cr + 'CREATE LOGIN '
 + QUOTENAME(d.name) + ' FROM WINDOWS;'
FROM dbo.WebDevelopers AS d
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.server_principals AS p
ON d.name = p.name
WHERE p.name IS NULL;

PRINT @sql;
-- EXEC sp_executesql @sql;


For the rest, this makes some basic assumptions: you always elevate privileges using database-level roles, rather than explicit GRANT/DENY, server role membership or AD group membership. Like the table of developers, you also want to have somewhere a list of the databases you want to affect:

CREATE TABLE dbo.DeveloperDatabases(name SYSNAME PRIMARY KEY);

INSERT dbo.DeveloperDatabases(name)
  SELECT N'some_database'
  -- UNION ALL N'...';


Now you can build a script that will drop the user from each database, create the entire list from scratch, and add each user only to the db_datareader role. You may want to customize the script if you want to grant explicit rights on a certain schema or set of objects.

DECLARE @sql NVARCHAR(MAX), @cr NCHAR(2) = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10);

SELECT @sql = N'SELECT @sql2 = N'''';';

SELECT @sql = @sql + @cr + N'SELECT @sql2 = @sql2 + ''
  USE ' + QUOTENAME(name) + '; 
  DROP USER '' + QUOTENAME(d.name) + '';''
FROM dbo.WebDevelopers AS d
INNER JOIN ' + QUOTENAME(name) + '.sys.database_principals AS p
ON d.name = p.name;'
FROM dbo.DeveloperDatabases;

SELECT @sql = @sql + @cr + N'SELECT @sql2 = @sql2 + ''
  USE ' + QUOTENAME(name) + '; 
  CREATE USER '' + QUOTENAME(d.name) + '' FROM LOGIN '' + QUOTENAME(d.name) + '';
  EXEC sp_addrolemember ''''db_datareader'''', '''''' + d.name + '''''';''
FROM dbo.WebDevelopers AS d
LEFT OUTER JOIN ' + QUOTENAME(name) + '.sys.database_principals AS p
ON d.name = p.name
WHERE p.name IS NULL;'
FROM dbo.DeveloperDatabases;

DECLARE @sql2 NVARCHAR(MAX);

EXEC sp_executesql @sql, N'@sql2 NVARCHAR(MAX) OUTPUT', @sql2 OUTPUT;

PRINT @sql2;
-- EXEC sp_executesql @sql2;


This is very rough, and lots of things can make it break. I could have combined the two selects into a single query but I think double-nested dynamic SQL was complex enough without adding conditional string concatenation in there as well.