My question is how to create logins on a replica server where the default database is not currently available i.e target for AlwaysOn, mirrorring, log shipping?
In order to reduce the amount of work (and diagnosis) in a DR event it is good to have all of the logins created and configured in advance but when the default database isn't available an alternative has to be used.
I'm assuming that the "default database" for a login is merely an entry in a table (whether it be a name or a DBID) so I'm unclear why this can't be set independently of the database being available. Is there some underlying functionality that occurs in the login or is this simply SQL Server preventing us from choosing an "invalid" database for our own good?!
Has anyone identified a workaround? Replica databases have been around for a while so this isn't a new issue.
Thanks.