Essential SQL Server Concepts - Microsoft Business Intelligence Tools for Excel Analysts - page 158

Figure 8-4: Three primary server roles.
A login can be assigned to any number of the available server roles. Each role has a defined set of
permissions governing the actions that can be taken on the server. The most commonly used roles
are Dbcreator, Public, and Sysadmin:
➤ Dbcreator: Is able to create new databases on the server and fully control and administer
those databases.
➤ Public: Is allowed access to the server but is not given any server-level capabilities. Typically
logins under this role have specific access at the database level.
➤ Sysadmin: Has full control over the server. You are typically assigned this role if you installed
SQL Server yourself or you were given that level of access by another sysadmin.
Database access
After your server-level security has been defined, there is another layer of access control at the data-
base level. You can configure and control this access level in the Security folder of your database in
the Object Explorer window. There are two primary aspects to SQL Server's database-level security
that are of concern to you: users and database roles (see Figure 8-5).