I am a bit confused SQL server windows login and credential. On books online, it says that credential can access resources beyond sql server, but as far as i see windows login might be able to do that that since it is mapped to a windows user. Am i missing something else?
Thanks, in advance.
In previous versions of SQL Server, if there was a need to access something outside of SQL Server the service account under which the SQL Server service was running was the credential that was used. By specifying a credential you can say if user X runs a stored procedure or query which access resource Y, use credential Z as the account to access it.
@Remus Rusanu You are confusing the idea of a SQL Server login, which is created using CREATE LOGIN, with a different concept called a credential, created with CREATE CREDENTIAL. See http://www.replicationanswers.com/Security2005.asp for more details.
Credentials are needs to cover the case when the login is actually not a Windows user. Typical case being a SQL Login (user authenticated with SQL authentication instead of integrated authentication).