Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

The dbo User

The dbo user is the database owner and cannot be deleted from the database. Members of the sysadmin server role are mapped to the dbo user in each database, which allows them to administer all databases. Objects owned by dbo that are part of the dbo schema can be referenced by the object name alone. When an object is referenced without a schema name, SQL Server first looks for the object in the default schema for the user that is connected. If the object is not in the user’s default schema, the object is retrieved from the dbo schema. Users can have a default schema that is set to dbo.

Schemas and their relationship to users are discussed in more detail in the section “User/Schema Separation,” later in this chapter.