Sql-server – How to set up SQL Server 2008 users without Windows/Domain accounts

Don't create a local account with the same name as the domain account. If you want to add a domain login as a sql admins do as follows:

• create a login for the domain account: create login [AD\Sql1] from windows;
• add the login to sysadmin group: exec sp_addsrvrolemember 'AD\Sql1', 'sysadmin';

Done. You would achieve the same result if you'd simply add the AD\Sql account to the local administrators via net localgroup Administrators /add AD\Sql1 (from a CMD shell) but that is not the correct solution as it grants AD\Sql1 all NT administrator privileges in addition to granting him SQL admin, which is not stated as a requirement therefore is unnecessary elevation. BTW the rule that members of the local Administrators group are SQL admins is not implicit, is an explicit privilege granted by default during SQL Setup and it can be revoked so you have to check for it.

Since you are running in a workgroup the only possible authentication is one using 'mirrored NT accounts', which means that the process trying to authenticate must be running under an identity that is 'mirrored' on the host that is authenticating the process. 'Mirrored' accounts are distinct local accounts with identical name and password on both hosts doing the authentication.

So it must follow that you're running SSMS from an account that it is mirrored on the SQL Server host (eg. <computername>\Administrator, which is mirrored by the <sqlhost>\Administrator and has the same password). Note that UAC has nothing to do here (ie running as administrator will not help).

Your application is probably running under a different local account (default IIS appool perhaps?) and the account under which the application runs is not mirrored on the SQL Server host.

Your best solution is to ditch the makeshift network and deploy a proper AD (domain). As an interim, make sure you run your application under an account that is mirrored on thew SQL Server host machine.