Assigning privileges to the existing SQL Server databases and logs

Last published : Aug 26, 2026
Note: The following steps are required only if you have configured the SQL cluster account while creating the SQL Server service group earlier.
While installing SQL Server, if the user account specified for the SQL Server services is not a member of the local administrators group, then the SQL services and databases may not be accessible after a service group failover. For such a case, you configure the SQL cluster account while creating the SQL Server service group.
The SQL cluster account gets full control privileges to all the new databases and log files that are created after the service group is configured.
However, if databases were created before the service group is configured, you have to manually assign the SQL cluster account with full control privileges to the existing databases and log files associated with the instances in the service group.
To assign privileges to the existing SQL databases and logs
  1. On the node where the SQL Server service group is online, navigate to the following directory from Windows explorer:
\<Datarootdirectory \>\\<SQLinstancename \>\MSSQL\
The directory contains various directories including DATA, FTData, JOBS, Log, repldata.
Here, \<Datarootdirectory \> is the path that you specified while installing SQL Server.
  1. Assign the SQL Cluster account with full control privileges to the following directories:
    • DATA
    • Log
  2. Navigate inside the DATA folder and then assign the SQL cluster account with full control privileges to the following files in that directory:
    • tempdb.mdf
    • templog.ldf
  3. Repeat these steps for all the instances that are configured in the SQL Server service group.
This ensures the existing SQL databases are accessible after a service group failover.