How do I GRANT ALTER ANY LINKED SERVER to a role?

Question

Our database has a named database role. Our service account is a member of this role. This makes our database creation scripts simpler.

However, I'd like this role to be able to create linked servers.

If I try the following:

USE OurDatabase
GO

GRANT ALTER ANY LINKED SERVER TO OurRole
GO

...it fails with Permissions at the server scope can only be granted when the current database is master.

If I try the opposite:

USE [master]
GO

GRANT ALTER ANY LINKED SERVER TO OurRole
GO

...then it fails with Cannot find the login 'OurRole', because it does not exist or you do not have permission.

How do I grant linked server permissions to a database role in SQL Server?

Answer 1

The documentation would suggest that granting a server permission to a database role is not possible (compare to the documentation for granting a database permission).