Map login to user in restored database in SYBASE ASE 16

Question

After restoring a database from other environment is there a way to map a user in the database to a login in the server. I can drop and recreate or alias but in MS SQL Server there is a way:

EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Auto_Fix', 'user'

I was looking for something similar in SYBASE ASE 16

Answer 1

Sybase (ASE) does not provide any method for syncing system tables between a user db and the master db. It's up to the DBA/dbo to manually fix this after loading a database from a different dataserver (or loading an old db dump after the local dataserver's logins/roles/users/aliases has been (heavily) modified).

There are a few issues you'll want to consider:

• users mapped to the wrong login (need to remap suid)
• users with no login to map to (need to delete)
• (db) roles mapped to the wrong (srvr) role (need to remap id)
• (db) roles with no (srvr) role to map to (need to delete)
• aliases mapped to the wrong login (easier to delete and re-run sp_addalias)
• aliases with no login to map to (need to delete)
• permissions with no associated grantee/granter (after cleaning up sysusers/sysalternates/sysroles)

Assuming you're looking for input/suggestions on how to go about patching sysusers ...

---

Do NOT perform these operations without first:

• testing/verifying in a test database
• making sure all changes are performed within a transaction and said changes are double-checked/verified before issuing a commit tran

Anyone proceeding with the following steps is solely responsible for any adverse outcomes!!

---

NOTE: sysusers contains data on users, groups and roles; the following applies to the entries for users.

Assumptions:

• db user names are the same as the associated login name (ie, sysusers.name should match syslogins.name)
• if logins have been mapped to users with different names (on purpose) ... the following will not work; the DBA will need to have a master list of what logins are supposed to be mapped to what users

General steps involved in patching user entries in sysusers:

-- mismatched sysusers entries

select  suid,suser_name(suid),name
from    sysusers
where   suid > 1
and     isnull(suser_name(suid),'DOESNOTEXIST') != name
and     name not in ('dbo','guest','probe','usedb_user')  # operator should review and update this list as necessary
go

-- assuming sysusers needs to be patched ...

-- enable updates of system tables

exec sp_configure 'allow updates to system tables',1
go
    
-- perform all updates inside a transaction !!!

begin tran
go

-- update sysusers based on sysusers.name = syslogins.name

update  sysusers
set     suid = suser_id(name)
where   suid            > 1
and     name            not in ('dbo','guest','probe','usedb_user')
and     suser_id(name)  != suid
and     suser_id(name)  is not NULL
go

-- delete sysusers where there is no syslogins.name = sysusers.name

delete  sysusers
where   suid            > 1
and     name            not in ('dbo','guest','probe','usedb_user')
and     suser_id(name)  is NULL

/* if any errors, or rowcounts are greater than expected:

   rollback tran

else

   commit tran
*/

-- disable updates of system tables

exec sp_configure 'allow updates to system tables',0
go