Built-in role that can manage databases and logical servers, including setting the Microsoft Entra admin. Switching Microsoft Entra-only authentication on or off is beyond it, though Contributor or SQL Security Manager can do so.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains SQL Server Contributor in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Role
How an actor normally or expectedly behaves, or the part a person takes in a process. A single actor may hold more than one role.
- MANAGE
A Unity Catalog privilege allowing a principal to grant and revoke access on an object, hand over its ownership and drop it, all without being the owner. It gives no data access by itself and is not part of
ALL PRIVILEGES. - Logical
Independent of any implementation. Each logical design is made real through a physical counterpart.
- Microsoft Entra admin
Set on an Azure SQL managed instance or logical server, this is the single Entra principal (a user, group, managed identity or service principal) able to log in to all its databases and to add further Entra users.
- Microsoft Entra-only authentication
Setting on an Azure SQL server that turns off SQL authentication, leaving Entra identities as the only way to connect.
- Contributor
Built-in Azure role with full management of resources, except that it can't give access to anyone.
- SQL Security Manager
Built-in role for managing security policies such as threat detection and auditing on SQL servers and databases. Access to Key Vault keys is not included.