Adding permissions for NT AUTHORITY\NETWORKSERVICE

Question

I want to attach a .mdf file to my SQL Server 2008 instance.

I understand that to do this I need to give folder permissions to the account that is running SQL Server

From the answer to this question I found that account is

NT AUTHORITY\NETWORKSERVICE

by running

wmic service where "name Like 'MSSQL%'" get Name , StartName

however when I try to grant permissions to this account I get an error

The following object is not from a domain listed in the Select Location dialog box, and is therefore not valid:

I am on Windows7

and I am selecting the name of my pc as the domain.

Answer 1

As per MSDN documentation:

The NetworkService account is a predefined local account used by the service control manager. This account is not recognized by the security subsystem, so you cannot specify its name in a call to the LookupAccountName function. It has minimum privileges on the local computer and acts as the computer on the network.

From the above Para it is clear that,you cant add network service manually,further it also states it has minimum privelages.

When you use NT account ,you may get a question on how this credentials are validated by remote computer.

In same section 3 rd paragraph: A service that runs in the context of the NetworkService account presents the computer's credentials to remote servers. By default, the remote token contains SIDs for the Everyone and Authenticated Users groups

So I believe NTservice will have basic read access to backup folders,which is true in my case.You also can try giving system and authenticated users permissions on backupfolder and further paste the error you are getting,so that we can try to help

Source:https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms684272(v=vs.85).aspx