In Microsoft SQL Server 2019, is "MS_DataCollectorInternalUser" an internal Microsoft SQL Server database principal in the msdb system database, required for SQL Server Data Collector functionality?

Question

In Microsoft SQL Server 2019, is "MS_DataCollectorInternalUser" an internal Microsoft SQL Server database principal in the msdb system database, required for SQL Server Data Collector functionality?

Answer 1

That's a good question, and after having installed a junk instance and activated data collection, my answer will have to be: I don't know. That is, I have not been able to find that this user is actually used anywhere.

I ran:

SELECT * FROM sys.sql_modules WHERE definition LIKE '%MS_DataCollectorInternalUser%'

And it does return a couple of rows, but the code all look like this example:

CREATE   PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_syscollector_verify_collector_state]
    @desired_state          int
WITH EXECUTE AS OWNER -- 'MS_DataCollectorInternalUser'

That is, the username is only a comment.

I also note that the user has a sid, which suggests that it would be a server principal, but the sid is not present in master.

I tried to drop the user, but I was told:

Msg 15284, Level 16, State 1, Line 14
The database principal has granted or denied permissions to objects in the database and cannot be dropped.

I ran:

SELECT * FROM sys.database_permissions WHERE grantor_principal_id = user_id('MS_DataCollectorInternalUser')

And which returned one row that grants the role dc_admin to impersonate MS_DataCollectorInternalUser. But I have not found case where any such impersonation happens. But I might not have looked hard enough,