SQL Server - How to Grant Read Access to ALL databases to a Login?

Question

I need to give a new login read access to all 300 databases on a server. How can I accomplish this without checking 300 checkboxes in the user mapping area?

Answer 1

Cursor through the databases and GRANT access to each with a little t-sql.

I did not test the code below.

DECLARE db_cursor CURSOR FOR
SELECT name 
FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases 
WHERE name NOT IN ('master','model','msdb','tempdb') 


WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0  
BEGIN  

GRANT SELECT ON DATABASE::@name to 'username'; 

FETCH NEXT FROM db_cursor INTO @name  
END 

Answer 2

From this article Set Results to Text to generate a script that you can then run. Obviously review its suitability first. You might want to exclude system databases.

select 'use ['+name +']'+ char(13)+'Go'+char(13)+'sp_adduser 
 '+char(13)+'Go'+char(13) + 'sp_addrolemember ''db_datareader'',
' +char(13)+'Go' +char(13) + ' sp_addrolemember ''db_denydatawriter'',
' +char(13)+'Go'+char(13) from master..sysdatabases

Or look at sp_msforeachdb as here

Answer 3

Declare @Databases Cursor
Declare @DbName as nvarchar(64)
Declare @Sql nvarchar(max)
Declare @BaseAddUserSql nvarchar(max)
Declare @BaseAddRoleSql nvarchar(max)

Set @Databases = Cursor Fast_Forward For
    select [name]
    from master..sysdatabases
    where [name] not in('master','model','msdb','tempdb')

Open @Databases
Fetch Next From @Databases Into @DbName

Set @BaseAddUserSql = 'exec sp_adduser ''LOGINNAME'''
Set @BaseAddRoleSql = 'exec sp_addrolemember ''db_datareader'', ''LOGINNAME'''


While @@Fetch_Status = 0
Begin
    Begin Try
        Set @Sql = 'Use ' + Quotename(@DbName)
        exec (@Sql)

        Set @Sql = Replace(@BaseAddUserSql, 'LOGINNAME', <loginname>)
        exec(@Sql)

        Set @Sql = Replace(@BaseAddRoleSql, 'LOGINNAME', <loginname>)
        exec(@Sql)
    End Try
    Begin Catch
    End Catch

    Fetch Next From @Databases Into @DbName
End

Close @Databases
Deallocate @Databases