Hello @MKF62
I do not recommend using a domain headless account as a data owner user in the SQL Server Enterprise Geodatabase, there are many reasons for that, but let's just say this is not a good practice for security and maintenance purposes, instead I always recommend to my customers to create a normal SQL Server user to be the data owner user, and if you want users to connect to the Geodatabase with their Windows Domain Login, then you can add those logins to SQL Server and add each domain login to the database and grant a database role with permissions to edit and view the data. This is a much better approach.
Note, you can also create an Active Directory (AD) Group for editor users and another for viewer users, then add the AD Group as a SQL Server Login, yes this is possible, then you add the AD Group as a user in the SQL Server Database, then in the database you create a database role for editor and another for viewer and then grant the proper role to the user. This way if someone needs editor access or viewer access you just need to go to the AD Group and add the user Domain Login into the proper AD Group. I have done this setup before and it works fine with Geodatabases in SQL Server.
You can find these best practices and a lot more in my community.esri.com blog below.
Mapping and Charting Solutions (MCS) Enterprise Databases Best Practices
Read the Production Mapping Database Guide Book for SQL Server.
You will also find my Database Template Scripts for SQL Server that you can download and use as a template to create your own configuration.
Also read the Database Connections Best Practices, there is important information there.
You can also use Contained Database Users instead of SQL Server Database Logins, this way you will not need to map SQL Server Logins to SQL Server Database Users anymore, read more in the article below that I have published.
How to Move the SQL Server Enterprise Geodatabase with a database backup
| Marcelo Marques | Principal Product Engineer | Esri |
| Cloud & Database Administrator | OCP - Oracle Certified Professional |
I work with Enterprise Geodatabases since 1997.
“ I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." Isaac Isimov