Getting "invalid authorization specification" when creating linked server I have two databases. Database A is on DBServer\Instance1 and Database B is on DBServer\Instance2. I need to create a view inside Database B that looks into a table in Database A. I was told I need to add DBServer\Instance1 as a linked server to DBServer\Instance2 first. That's what I'm trying to do.

Just for testing, I created a user account named linked_server_acct and gave it all the roles on both servers (Under Security > Logins). I can log in to each instance using SQL Management Studio, so I know for a fact that the login works, but I'm not able to use it for some reason when creating the linked servers. It fails with "invalid authentication specification - 7399'.

I can't think of a reason why an account that is basically a super admin of a server can't authenticate to it. Any help would be appreciated.

DBServer\Instance1 linked server script:

/****** Object:  LinkedServer [DBSERVER\INSTANCE1]    Script Date: 

06/17/2015 16:17:39 ******/
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver @server = N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @srvproduct=N'SQL Server'
 /* For security reasons the linked server remote logins password is changed with ######## */
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin @rmtsrvname=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1',@useself=N'False',@locallogin=NULL,@rmtuser=NULL,@rmtpassword=NULL
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin @rmtsrvname=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1',@useself=N'True',@locallogin=N'linked_server_acct',@rmtuser=NULL,@rmtpassword=NULL

GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'collation compatible', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'data access', @optvalue=N'true'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'dist', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'pub', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'rpc', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'rpc out', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'sub', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'connect timeout', @optvalue=N'0'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'collation name', @optvalue=null
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'lazy schema validation', @optvalue=N'false'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'query timeout', @optvalue=N'0'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'use remote collation', @optvalue=N'true'
GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'DBSERVER\INSTANCE1', @optname=N'remote proc transaction promotion', @optvalue=N'true'
GO
Figured out the problem. Even though the user I was adding to the Linked Server security section had permissions into the target database, the user I was logged into the SQL Server instance at the moment didn't. Since the error message is incredibly unhelpful (it doesn't say which user failed to log in), I discovered this entirely by accident.