PRB: Cannot Change SA Password in Enterprise Manager

• Microsoft SQL Server version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

When attempting to change the system administrator (SA) password by changing the value in the Password box of the SQL Server Login Properties dialog box (on the General tab) in the SQL Server Enterprise Manager, you may receive the following error message:

Error 21776: [SQL-DMO] The name 'dbo' was not found in the Users collection. If the name is a qualified name, use [] to separate various parts of the name, and try again.

CAUSE

This problem can be the result of performing a restore to a server where the database owner (DBO) login does not exist. In this case, one or more DBOs are mapped to NULL, and there is no specific DBO listed. The SQL Server Distributed Management Object (SQL-DMO) collection will have no record of 'DBO' and will not allow the SA password change.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the sp_changedbowner stored procedure to change the owner of the database to a login that exists on the server.

NOTE: When this problem occurs, you can still use the sp_password stored procedure to change the SA password. However, this option is not recommended because it does nothing to resolve the situation of the missing DBOs.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information on the sp_changedbowner and sp_password stored procedures, please see the SQL Server 7.0 Books Online.

Additional query words: pw gui tool ent man entman SEM T-SQL Transact-SQL

Keywords          : SSrvAdmin kbSQLServ700 
Version           : winnt:7.0
Platform          : winnt 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: March 26, 1999