Programming Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012

Partially Contained Databases

The dependency of database-specific users upon server-based logins poses a challenge when you need to move or restore a database to another server. Although the users move with the database, their associated logins do not, and thus the relocated database will not function properly until you also set up and map the necessary logins on the target server. To resolve these types of dependency problems and help make databases more easily portable, SQL Server 2012 introduces “partially contained” databases.

The term “partially contained” comes from the fact that SQL Server itself merely enables containment—it does not enforce it. It’s still your job to actually implement true containment. From a security perspective, this ...