Server Roles

System Administrators (sysadmin) are equivalent to the SQL Server 6.5 sa. In SQL Server 7.0, sa gets its permissions by being a member of the sysadmin role. Microsoft recommends that you avoid having all your administrators logging in to SQL Server as sa. Have them log in under their NT or SQL Server logins, and assign them to the sysadmin role. That way, you can track who's connected and what they're doing.

Security Administrators (securityadmin) can add or remove NT and SQL Server logins from the SQL Server.

Server Administrators (serveradmin) can change serverwide settings and options.

Setup Administrators (setupadmin) can set up linked servers.

Process Administrators (processadmin) can only kill a process. Although the description for this role says that members can manage the processes running in SQL Server, the only management option they have is to kill a process.

Disk Administrators (diskadmin), according to the official Microsoft description, can manage the disk files for SQL Server. However, the permissions for this role refer to disk devices, which SQL Server 7.0 doesn't use.

Database Creators (dbcreator) can create, modify, and drop databases.