Model, Component, and Package Management > Model management > Model Explorer > Working with databases > Synchronizing a database with Active Directory changes (Model Explorer)
  
Synchronizing a database with Active Directory changes (Model Explorer)
Reasons for synchronizing a database
In SQL Server, group memberships are cached on the database. You should update the database with the latest changes made to users and groups in Active Directory and synchronize the database so that the changes are visible to the users. You must synchronize the database (in Model Explorer) for the following reasons:
• When a user belongs to multiple AD groups that has logins, performing a synchronization updates the effective permissions (Owner/Read/Write) of the particular user.
• When a user is added to or deleted from an AD group that has a login in SQL (Modeler), synchronization must be performed to update the user’s permissions.
• When an AD group is added to or removed from a domain, synchronizing updates the database to correctly reflect the permissions or the existence of the affected AD group.
To update the database with the latest permissions:
1. Start Model Explorer.
For more information, see Starting Model Explorer.
2. Locate the Database that you want to synchronize:
a. Expand the SQL icon.
b. Expand the Server that owns the database you want to synchronize .
If the Server that owns the Database is not shown, add the Server to Model Explorer.
For more information, refer to Adding a server to Model Explorer.
c. If the Database you want to synchronize is not shown, show the server's databases, and optionally bookmark the database.
For more information, see Showing a server's databases.
3. Right-click the database you want to synchronize, point to Update Group Memberships, the select one of the following options:
◦ Sync Self— to synchronize group memberships for the current user.
◦ Sync User...— to synchronize memberships for a specific user.
Enter the user name in the following format: <domain>\<user>
◦ Sync Group...— to synchronize memberships for a specific group.
Enter the group name in the following format: <domain>\<group>
◦ Sync All Principals— to synchronize memberships for all users and groups in the database.
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The Sync User..., Sync Group..., and Sync All Principals options are available only to server and database administrators.
4. Confirm that the Refreshed group memberships successfully message appears.
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The permissions may not reflect immediately and may take some time to update.