Server Roles

Server roles are available for various database administration tasks. Not everyone should be assigned to a server role. In fact, only advanced users such as database administrators should be assigned a server role.

Here are the server roles defined in SQL Server during setup:

Server Role Description
sysadmin Can perform any task in SQL Server.
serveradmin Can set server-wide configuration options, can shut down the server.
setupadmin Can manage linked servers and startup procedures.
securityadmin Can manage logins and database permissions, read logs, change passwords.
processadmin Can manage processes running in SQL Server.
dbcreator Can create, alter, and drop databases.
diskadmin Can manage disk files.
bulkadmin Can execute BULK INSERT statements.

As you can see, some of these roles allow very specific tasks to be performed. If you don't have many technical users, it's likely that you'll only use one or two of these roles (including sysadmin).