I have one machine with an application running that many users need to log
in and out of quickly. Logging off the machine, logging in and restarting
the app takes too long. Users already log into the application using their
windows login and password which I check against the AD, then I build
connections strings so SQL Server knows who is logged in - which I need for
auditing. Using SQL authentication is not an option.

Is it possible to make a connection string to SQL Server using Windows
Authentication using a different windows user than the one logged into the
machine?

Thanks.

--
Matthew Wells
matthew.wells (AT) firstbyte (DOT) net

Matthew Wells (matthew.wells (AT) firstbyte (DOT) net) writes:
No. You could use the RunAs functionality in Windows to impersonate the
user.

The other alternative is to have the Windows session being logged in by a
service user. This server would then do an EXECUTE AS LOGIN when connected
to SQL Server. Or use SET CONTEXT_INFO and then the context_info()
function, but that may require you to do changes to the SQL code.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se

Links for SQL Server Books Online:
SQL 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc514207.aspx
SQL 2005: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb895970.aspx
SQL 2000: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinf...ons/books.mspx

I appreciate the response, but I don't think this helps. A regular user is
definitely logged in so a service user is out. I did a trick a few years
back where I added "WSID= " + CurrentUser to the connection string and then
used @@Host_ID to get the user. Seems really lame. I was really hoping
there was a more logical way.

Thsnks.


--
Matthew Wells
matthew.wells (AT) firstbyte (DOT) net

"Erland Sommarskog" <esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se> wrote

Matthew Wells (matthew.wells (AT) firstbyte (DOT) net) writes:
I'm sorry if my response was not helpful enough, but since I only get a
glimpse of your environment, it's difficult to say which ideas that would
be workable. The one thing I can say with certainty is that if you are
logged into Windows as user X, you cannot log into SQL Server with
Windows authentication as user Y. This is a fundamental thing. Windows
authentication works from the principle that Windows have already
authenticated you, and that's why SQL Server lets you in.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se

Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...ads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinf...ons/books.mspx

I didn't mean to sound unappreciative. I'm very grateful for suggestions
whether they work or not. I'm just glad you're not one of those people that
reply with "Have you looked at the help?".

--
Matthew Wells
matthew.wells (AT) firstbyte (DOT) net

"Erland Sommarskog" <esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se> wrote