BUG: Transfer Manager May Not Transfer Some Logins

• Microsoft SQL Server, version 6.0

SYMPTOMS

By design, SQL Transfer Manager does not maintain login passwords when you transfer logins between two Microsoft SQL Server version 6.0 databases. If, however, the encrypted password contains a single quotation mark character, the login may not be added.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft SQL Server version 6.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Transfer Manager builds a script of logins that are installed via SP_ADDLOGIN, and it pulls the information from syslogins on the source server. There is no function to decrypt the password, so the SP_ADDLOGIN procedure adds the login with the encrypted password. The system administrator (SA) needs to change the password to something more user friendly after the transfer.

In some cases, the encrypted password may contain a single quotation mark character (') which causes the SP_ADDLOGIN to fail with an incorrect syntax error. This error can cascade to SP_ADDUSER, object creation, and permission grants if the user owns any objects which are being transferred or the user has permissions that need to be added.