Permissions needed for sql server job to execute stored procedure on linked server?

Question

Hi all
I have a job step which attempts to call a stored procedure on a linked server.
This step is failing with a permission denied error. How can I debug or resolve this?
The job owner is sysadmin on both servers so should have execute permission to the database/proc I'm calling, right?
The error is:
The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object 'myProc', database 'myDatabase', schema 'dbo'. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 229).  The step failed.
My code is:
EXEC [LinkedServer].myDatabase.dbo.myProc
Also tried:
SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([LinkedServer], 'SET FMTONLY OFF EXEC myDatabase.dbo.myProc')
With the same result.
Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

The job owner may be sysadmin on the remote server. The service account for SQL Server Agent may not. And it is the latter that counts, since the it the service accounts that logs in and impersonates the job owner. But the impersonation inside SQL Server
does not count much in Windows, and it is through Windows connection is made to the other site.
One way to resolve this is to set up a login mapping for the job owner. The login mapping must be for an SQL login on the remote server.
You can verify the theory, but running this query from the job:
   SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([LinkedServer], 'SELECT SYSTEM_USER')
By the way, putting SET FMTONLY OFF in OPENQUERY is a terrible idea. This has the effect that the procedure is executed twice. (Unless both servers are SQL 2012 or higher in which case FMTONLY has no effect at all.)
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, [email protected]