Problem with connecting to Linked Server – SQL 2008 R2 to SQL 2008 R2 – with any non-sysadmin SQL account.

We are experiencing an issue which is stopping any use of a SQL Linked server, except when the user has sysadmin server role.

Our setup is:

·         ServerA and ServerB are both SQL 2008 R2 Standard Edition

·         MyLinkedServer, is a Linked Server, Server Object, using the SQL Server Native Client 10.0 – which links from ServerA to ServerB

·         The Security of this Linked server is set to either

o   Be made using the login’s current security context

o   Be made using this security context:  (with valid and tested SQL credentials)

We are led to believe that prior to any use of a linked server connection, SQL server will execute the extended stored procedures sp_testlinkedserver :

exec sp_testlinkedserver @servername = MyLinkedServer

 If we execute the above statement with the sa account, or any other account that has been granted sysadmin role, then we get: 

Command(s) completed successfully. 

If we execute the above statement with an account that does not have sysadmin role, then we get: 

Msg 7416, Level 16, State 2, Procedure sp_testlinkedserver, Line 1

Access to the remote server is denied because no login-mapping exists. 

We have run a SQL Profiler Trace (Standard Trace with addition of Errors and Warnings – User Error Message turned on) against the servers and have noted the following difference: 

With sa account, or any other account that has been granted sysadmin role: 

With NON-sa account:

 It would appear to us, that the NON-sa account is unable to retrieve the stored credentials for the linked server – although we cannot find where these credentials are stored.

 Has anyone else come across this same issue, does anyone have any suggestions or (hopefully) a resolution?

 Thanks in advance for any help with this.

 Regards,

 Neal