sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @rmtpassword fails with Msg 7455 after upgrade SQL Server 2022 to 2025

Question

sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @rmtpassword fails with Msg 7455 after upgrade SQL Server 2022 to 2025

Bin Wang 0

Our product need to create Linked Servers in SQL Server to achieve our function, it works well in SQL Server 2022, but after upgrading to SQL Server 2025, it's always broken, we analyzed and tested with different case, it only broken when calling sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with with @useself = FALSE and @rmtpassword, the following are the details:

SQL Server: MYOBPF645TLJ\SQL2025DE
Version: 17.0.1115.1
SMK exists and ALTER SERVICE MASTER KEY FORCE REGENERATE was run.
CREATE CREDENTIAL with SECRET succeeds.
sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @useself = TRUE succeeds.
sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @rmtpassword fails with Msg 7455.
Same failure with SQLNCLI and MSOLEDBSQL.

Erland Sommarskog 136.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-23T08:46:50.4633333+00:00

Was that an in-place upgrade or did you install a new instance? If the latter, did you just use the master database that was created or did you restore a backup of master from the old instance? Do you see this on more than one server?

I don't know what might be going on. It sounds strange if sp_addlinkedsrvlogin fails, but CREATE CREDENTIAL works. What I do note, though, is that you only have GDRs, but you do not have any Cumulative Updates applied. Not that I expect it to resolve the problem, but I still recommend that you download and install the most recent Cumulative Update, which is CU7.
XiangTian She 5 Reputation points

2026-07-24T02:28:55.3866667+00:00
Hi, @Erland Sommarskog , Thank you for the follow-up questions and the CU7 recommendation.

I pair with the question author work on this issue, and here are the answers based on what we have confirmed so far:

Upgrade type

This was an in-place upgrade from SQL Server 2022 to SQL Server 2025 on the same instance — not a side-by-side new instance.

Master database

The master database was the existing master upgraded in place with the instance. It was not a freshly created master on a new install, and we did not restore a separate master backup from the old environment.

Repro across servers

The issue does not occur on every server. Some environments work fine after upgrading to SQL Server 2025; others fail with the same symptoms. On affected machines, rolling back from SQL Server 2025 to SQL Server 2022 resolves the problem.

Update after applying CU7

We have since upgraded to the latest cumulative update, build 17.0.4065.4 (CU7), as you recommended. The issue still reproduces on affected instances — sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @useself = FALSE and @rmtpassword still fails with Error 7455 (Service Master Key is not generated or access is lost so encryption/decryption of linked server passwords cannot be done).

When we roll the same affected instances back from SQL Server 2025 to SQL Server 2022, the problem disappears again, even though CU7 did not resolve it on 2025.

Given this — in-place upgrade, intermittent repro across servers, CU7 applied without fix, and rollback to 2022 consistently restoring normal behaviour — do you have any thoughts or ideas on what might be going wrong, or what we should investigate next? Would you recommend escalating this to Microsoft as a SQL Server 2025 in-place upgrade regression?

Thank you again for your help.

1 answer

Your answer

Erland Sommarskog 136.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-07-23T08:46:50.4633333+00:00

Was that an in-place upgrade or did you install a new instance? If the latter, did you just use the master database that was created or did you restore a backup of master from the old instance? Do you see this on more than one server?

I don't know what might be going on. It sounds strange if sp_addlinkedsrvlogin fails, but CREATE CREDENTIAL works. What I do note, though, is that you only have GDRs, but you do not have any Cumulative Updates applied. Not that I expect it to resolve the problem, but I still recommend that you download and install the most recent Cumulative Update, which is CU7.
XiangTian She 5 Reputation points

2026-07-24T02:28:55.3866667+00:00

Hi, @Erland Sommarskog , Thank you for the follow-up questions and the CU7 recommendation.

I pair with the question author work on this issue, and here are the answers based on what we have confirmed so far:

Upgrade type

This was an in-place upgrade from SQL Server 2022 to SQL Server 2025 on the same instance — not a side-by-side new instance.

Master database

The master database was the existing master upgraded in place with the instance. It was not a freshly created master on a new install, and we did not restore a separate master backup from the old environment.

Repro across servers

The issue does not occur on every server. Some environments work fine after upgrading to SQL Server 2025; others fail with the same symptoms. On affected machines, rolling back from SQL Server 2025 to SQL Server 2022 resolves the problem.

Update after applying CU7

We have since upgraded to the latest cumulative update, build 17.0.4065.4 (CU7), as you recommended. The issue still reproduces on affected instances — sp_addlinkedsrvlogin with @useself = FALSE and @rmtpassword still fails with Error 7455 (Service Master Key is not generated or access is lost so encryption/decryption of linked server passwords cannot be done).

When we roll the same affected instances back from SQL Server 2025 to SQL Server 2022, the problem disappears again, even though CU7 did not resolve it on 2025.

Given this — in-place upgrade, intermittent repro across servers, CU7 applied without fix, and rollback to 2022 consistently restoring normal behaviour — do you have any thoughts or ideas on what might be going wrong, or what we should investigate next? Would you recommend escalating this to Microsoft as a SQL Server 2025 in-place upgrade regression?

Thank you again for your help.

Answer 1

Erland Sommarskog 136.2K MVP Volunteer Moderator

Yes, I would recommend that you open a support case. I'm not sure that this is a bug, but it may be something in your environment. Then again, maybe that is something that SQL Server and the upgrade should handle correctly. In any case, I expect this to be the fastest way to get the issue resolved.

I'm a little curious when you say that you roll back to SQL 2022. There is not really a simple way to do that - unless these are virtual machines where you revert to a snapshot.

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