CREATE SERVER ROLE (Transact-SQL)
Applies to: 
SQL Server
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Creates a new user-defined server role.
Transact-SQL syntax conventions
Syntax
CREATE SERVER ROLE role_name [ AUTHORIZATION server_principal ]
Arguments
role_name
The name of the server role to be created.
AUTHORIZATION server_principal
The login that will own the new server role. If no login is specified, the server role will be owned by the login that executes CREATE SERVER ROLE.
Remarks
Server roles are server-level securables. After you create a server role, configure the server-level permissions of the role by using GRANT, DENY, and REVOKE. To add logins to or remove logins from a server role, use ALTER SERVER ROLE (Transact-SQL). To drop a server role, use DROP SERVER ROLE (Transact-SQL). For more information, see sys.server_principals (Transact-SQL).
You can view the server roles by querying the sys.server_role_members and sys.server_principals catalog views.
Server roles cannot be granted permission on database-level securables. To create database roles, see CREATE ROLE (Transact-SQL).
For information about designing a permissions system, see Getting Started with Database Engine Permissions.
Permissions
Requires CREATE SERVER ROLE permission or membership in the sysadmin fixed server role.
Also requires IMPERSONATE on the server_principal for logins, ALTER permission for server roles used as the server_principal, or membership in a Windows group that is used as the server_principal.
This fires the Audit Server Principal Management event with the object type set to server role and event type to add.
When you use the AUTHORIZATION option to assign server role ownership, the following permissions are also required:
To assign ownership of a server role to another login, requires IMPERSONATE permission on that login.
To assign ownership of a server role to another server role, requires membership in the recipient server role or ALTER permission on that server role.
Examples
A. Create a server role that is owned by a login
The following example creates the server role buyers that is owned by login BenMiller.
USE master;
CREATE SERVER ROLE buyers AUTHORIZATION BenMiller;
GO
B. Create a server role that is owned by a fixed server role
The following example creates the server role auditors that is owned the securityadmin fixed server role.
USE master;
CREATE SERVER ROLE auditors AUTHORIZATION securityadmin;
GO