Have you ever inherited a SQL Server instance or been called in to troubleshoot, only to discover that no one has SysAdmin access? It happens more often than you’d think. Clients reach out, needing urgent work done, but the SA password is long forgotten, and no other account has elevated permissions.
Unfortunately, SQL Server doesn’t offer a “reset on next login” option for SQL-authenticated accounts. So what can you do?
Read on for one technique. I also covered a similar method from Tim Radney, so you can see the ‘raw’ way (Tim) or the dbatools way (Garry).