Linked servers login failure: Impersonate works, Username/password fails I'm trying to set up a linked server between 2 instances of Sql Server 2008 R2.

The login works perfectly when I select the impersonate option. However when I try to use the remote user/password option it fails, even though the remote user is the same as the local user being impersonated.

The user account I'm trying to connect with is a windows admin on both machines.

Unfortunately, I need to be able to connect to machines that the local user doesn't have admin rights to (though I will have the username/password of an admin when this occurs), so impersonation won't work.

Where am I going wrong?
user/password option it fails, even though the remote user is the same
  as the local user being impersonated


You can't possibly impersonate a SQL login, and a linked server user/password option only allows for SQL logins. Sounds like you are attempting to pass in a Windows user/password credential, something that is not supported.