In order to do something on the server or one of its objects, a user must be given the permission. This is also referred to as granting a permission. To grant permissions, the account you are using must have the ability to do so. This means that, before granting permissions, you must log in with an account that has its own right permissions. You can grant permissions visually or with code.

To visually grant one or more permissions on the server, in the Object Explorer, right-click the name of the server and click Properties. In the left frame of the Server Properties dialog box, click Permissions. In the Logins or Roles list, click the name of the user. In the bottom list, use the options in the Grant column:

The basic formula to programmatically grant one or more permissions is:

GRANT Permission TO Login

You start with the GRANT keyword followed by the name of the permission. After the permission, type TO, followed by the login name you want to grant the permission to. Here is an example that gives operez to create a database on the server:

USE master;
GO
GRANT CREATE ANY DATABASE
TO operez;
GO

If you want to grant more than one permission, separate their names with commas. Here is an example:

GRANT CREATE ANY DATABASE, SHUTDOWN
TO operez;
GO

If you want to grant the same permission(s) to more than one account, list them, separated by commas. Here is an example:

GRANT CREATE ANY DATABASE, ALTER ANY LOGIN
TO pkatts, gdmonay;
GO