Mastering ArcGIS Enterprise Administration

SDE versus Dbo schema

Before proceeding, let's discuss schema ownership in your soon-to-be enterprise geodatabase. We've been discussing the geodatabase administrator, which is the user that owns the geodatabase. In SQL Server, the geodatabase administrator can be either a database user named sde or the dbo database user. The user you connect with to create your enterprise geodatabase is the owner of your geodatabase. A full list of the differences between these two ownership models can be found at the ArcGIS Enterprise online docs by searching for comparison of geodatabase owners in SQL Server. In the following section, we will summarize some of the major differences and advantages/disadvantages of these two schemas.