SharePoint PowerShell SQL Permissions "SharePoint_Shell_Access"?

Question

I've read some articles about adding users to the "SharePoint_Shell_Access" role in SQL Server to enable SP Admin PowerShell commands etc, but I'm curious to understand what it enables or grants permission to in SQL server when a user is added to that role. For example if I view the SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the SP Config database and look under "Securables" its blank. I don't mind that this has to be done but I'd like to understand whats going on behind the scenes.

Thanks.

Answer 1

In order to use Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 Products, a user must be a member of the SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the configuration database and a member of the WSS_ADMIN_WPG local group on the computer where SharePoint 2010 Products is installed. However, the result of running this cmdlet is that the user specified with the UserName parameter will have the dbo_owner role access on the affected databases as described above. Therefore, you should carefully plan which users are given this access.

From: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607596.aspx

 

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Wahid Saleemi Sr. Consultant, Avanade http://www.wahidsaleemi.com

Answer 2

In SharePoint 2016, executing Add-SPShellAdmin DOMAIN\MyAcct without specifying any other parameters maps these farm configuration database roles to DOMAIN\MyAcct:

• SharePoint_Shell_Access
• SPDataAccess