Add Azure Active Directory User to Azure SQL Database

Question

I have an Azure SQL Server and can SSMS into it. I also have an Azure Active Directory with a user named mytestuser@mytest.onmicrosoft.com. I want to add this user to have permissions to a database in my Azure SQL Server. The first step is trying to add it to the primary security of the Azure SQL Server.

I have tried the following on the Master Database:

CREATE USER [mytestuser@mytest.onmicrosoft.com] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER;
CREATE USER mytestuser;

But this generates the errors of:

Principal 'mytestuser@mytest.onmicrosoft.com' could not be created. Only connections established with Active Directory accounts can create other Active Directory users.

and

'mytestuser' is not a valid login or you do not have permission.

How do I add an Azure Active Account to Azure SQL? Once I have added it via the Master so it shows up in Security, I should be able to add it to any number of created databases via:

CREATE USER mytestuser FROM LOGIN mytestuser; 

Answer 1

After wasting 4 hours of my day trying to do this, below are the steps that worked for me:

• as per the documentation, set your AD account as the Active Directory admin (follow the steps mentioned in the documentation here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-database/sql-database-aad-authentication-configure under: Provision an Azure Active Directory administrator for your Azure SQL Database server).
• Install the latest version of SSMS on your machine (the 18 RC1 in my case). If you have an existing version installed, uninstall it and "try" to clean any left over registry keys, list here: Failed to parse XML blob ).
• Connect to your server using [Active Directory Integrated]. If you get the following error message : [Failed to parse XML blob], repeat step 2, or just install the latest version of SSMS on a different VM/Machine on your network (needs to be part of the same domain).
• Once connected, execute the following SQL (from the official documentation) CREATE USER [username@domain.com] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER;

I cannot believe I wasted almost two working days trying to do something as simple as adding a user to db. This is beyond belief. (/rantover)

Answer 2

I was able to connect and add an Active Directory User but it required the following:

1) SQL Server Management Studio 2016 or greater to have the Active Directory Login options (I used Active Directory Password Authentication)

2) Ensuring that the Azure SQL Server had the Azure Active Directory Admin set. You will this account to connect in Step 1

Answer 3

For me there was a trick where you do some steps in SSMS using Active Directory - Integrated and some steps using local SQL Authentication. Here's what worked for me:

I set the domain account to use for the "Active Directory admin" setting in the Azure Sql Server features screen. Then I was able to connect using SSMS running under this account.

Note: To simplify running SSMS as this other user I used runas: C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /savecred /user:YourAdAdminUser@YourDomain.com "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe"

Running as this user, I connected using the SSMS authentication option, "Active Directory - Integrated". From here I ran the following in the master db:

CREATE USER [YourAdAdminUser@YourDomain.com] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = dbo

Then I connected to same server in SSMS using local SQL Authentication, logging in with the account set as the "Server admin" for the Azure Sql Server instance. From here I ran alter role commands in master db:

ALTER ROLE dbmanager ADD MEMBER [YourAdAdminUser@YourDomain.com]
ALTER ROLE loginmanager ADD MEMBER [YourAdAdminUser@YourDomain.com]

Now I could go back to the to SSMS running as the AD Admin user and from there I could run CREATE USER commands as above but for other domain accounts:

CREATE USER [OtherAccount@YourDomain.com] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = dbo

You can decide which database to run the above (e.g., master and your non-system databases).

The domain users can now log in using "Active Directory - Integrated". Note if you add a domain user that is configured for MFA, then for that user to log on using SSMS they should select the SSMS authentication option, "Azure Active Directory - Universal with MFA", and their username should be with an "@" not backslash.

Answer 4

For those of you using pyodbc instead of SSMS

1. go to Azure Portal,

2. find server,

3. 'Active Directory Admin',

4. Set Admin to some.body@domain.com,

5. Login to the db you want to grant access to:

   from pyodbc import connect,drivers
   
   conn = connect(driver=drivers()[0],
                  server='someserver.database.windows.net', 
                  database='somedb',
                  Authentication='ActiveDirectoryPassword',
                  user='some.body@domain.com',
                  PWD='somepassword')
   cursor = conn.cursor()
   

6. Add a user to sql db

   cursor.execute("CREATE USER [someone.else@anydomain.com] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER;")
   conn.commit()
   

7. Grant read access:

   cursor.execute("EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_datareader', 'someone.else@anydomain.com';")
   conn.commit()
   

Answer 5

Overview

I had the same issue and resolved it using Azure CLI and sqlcmd. I could not make the sql management studio part work as it kept complaining about my device not being approved, however, the same worked with the command line tool!

Creating Azure AD Admin using Azure CLI

# Get objectId of the user you want to be admin
objectid=$(az ad user list --filter "userPrincipalName eq 'youruser@yourdomain.dk'" --query [0].objectId -o tsv)

# Setting user as admin
az sql server ad-admin create --display-name youruser@yourdomain.dk --object-id $(objectid) --resource-group yourresourcegroup --server sqlservername --subscription "Subscription name or id"

Adding an AD-User to Azure SQL

I used the SQL command line tool on Ubuntu, which can be installed using the documentation.

# Installing SQL command line on Ubuntu 20.04
sudo curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install msodbcsql17
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install mssql-tools

# Logging in to Azure SQL (-G means that you use Azure AD)
/opt/mssql-tools/bin/sqlcmd -U youruser@yourdomain.dk -P yourpassword -S sqlservername.database.windows.net -d master -G

# Creating a user (If using SSMS, you may experience problems)
1>CREATE USER [newuser@yourdomain.dk] FROM EXTERNAL PROVIDER;
2>GO