I am trying to configure my SQL Server to use Kerberos authentication. My setup is like this - My setup is like this- I have 2 virtual PCs in a Windows XP Pro SP3 host. Both VPCs are Windows Server 2003 R2. One VPC acts as the DC, DNS Server, DHCP server, has Active Directory installed and the SQL Server default instance is also running on this VPC. The second VPC is the domain member and it acts as the SQL Server client machine. I configured the SPN on the SQL Server service account to get the Kerberos working. On the client VPC it seems like it is using Kerberos authentication (as desired)- C:\Documents and Settings\administrator.SHAREPOINTSVC>sqlcmd -S vm-winsrvr2003 1> select auth_scheme from sys.dm_exec_connections where session_id=@@spid 2> go auth_scheme ---------------------------------------- KERBEROS (1 rows affected) 1> but on the server computer (where the SQL Server instance is actually running) it looks like it is still using NTLM authentication- . This is not a remote instance, the sql server is local to this machine. C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>sqlcmd 1> select auth_scheme from sys.dm_exec_connections where session_id=@@spid 2> go auth_scheme ---------------------------------------- NTLM (1 rows affected) 1> What can i do so that it uses Kerberos on the server computer as well ? (or is this something that I should not expect)

this is something you should not expect. your sql instance is already kerberos enabled for network connection. when you run the script from locally, it always choose NTLM however.

This is a SharePoint forum, and your question is more SQL server related. Anyway, I am interested and please let me know the result since I am not so sure. Thanks! According to the "III. When are Kerbers and NTLM applied when connect to SQL Server 2005" section in http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql_protocols/archive/2006/12/02/understanding-kerberos-and-ntlm-authentication-in-sql-server-connections.aspx : · NTLM is used when making local connection on WIN 2K3. · NTLM is used over NP connection. So, please check if you are using Name Pipe connection to exclude the second possibility; And you may try connect to the server with the server name or IP address instead of (local), please read http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sql_protocols/archive/2008/09/19/understanding-data-source-local-in-sql-server-connection-strings.aspx for local connection.