带有 Excel 2016 的 SQL Server 2017 OPENROWSET

Question

I am completely baffled by SQL Server and OPENROWSET permissions.

Our team has an AD Group. This group is included in the DEV server's Windows Administrators local group. This same AD group has SysAdmin privilege on the local installation of SQL Server 2017.

Attempting to run the command:

SELECT *  
FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0','Excel 12.0;Database=C:\Work\test.xls;HDR=YES',['sheet1$'])

works for me, but for none of my teammates.

If there is a definitive document on the security requirements for using the OPENROWSET command - I have not found it (and please - don't refer me to docs.microsoft.com - that documentation is not written in any way that I understand).

There are other issues I have found including if I change the name of the sheet in the Excel workbook - the command fails (and yes - I closed the book after making the change).

Finally - some feedback on the use of OPENROWSET - is it generally a good idea? a bad idea? pretty much neutral but be prepared for these kinds of problems?

I hope this question is specific enough to be answered - I have probably spent 20+ hours trying to figure out how to understand how this works so I can make it work and use it consistently.

Thanks!

Answer 1

So honestly troubleshooting security/permissions and errors with SQL Server is probably the most frustrating aspects of my job.

First few questions and thoughts about your dilemma.

• Do you really want to be granting your team connected to your db sysadmin rights? I wouldn't do that period, full-stop.
• Will the data be refreshed? If yes, I suggest you ingest this data into a sql table with a process, perhaps python, ssis, dts package, powershell, whatever you fancy.

If the data will always be static in that one excel file, I'd suggest perhaps making it act like a linked server for (hopefully) fewer permission issues? Also, it's easier to query that way, from my memory.

In any event, this article (non msdn link) may help? I've done it this way once before and had slightly less of a difficult time, but then again it involves adding a driver (usually) to the sql server. BUT, then I did not have to allow multiple users sysadmin - and I think ANYTHING is better than that.

https://www.sqlshack.com/query-excel-data-using-sql-server-linked-servers/

Sometimes the issue is not with the user running the query, but SQL Server using the account it runs as - to get permissions on the file. This article goes over that aspect as well. I'm not sure that is your issue as you say it works for me but not for thee , but maybe read that portion of the article at least?