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Applies to: 
 SQL Server 
 Azure SQL Managed Instance 
 Azure Synapse Analytics 
 Analytics Platform System (PDW)
Removes a user-defined server role.
User-defined server roles are new in SQL Server 2012 (11.x).
 Transact-SQL syntax conventions
Syntax
DROP SERVER ROLE role_name  
Arguments
role_name
Specifies the user-defined server role to be dropped from the server.
Remarks
User-defined server roles that own securables cannot be dropped from the server. To drop a user-defined server role that owns securables, you must first transfer ownership of those securables or delete them.
User-defined server roles that have members cannot be dropped. To drop a user-defined server role that has members, you must first remove members of the role by using ALTER SERVER ROLE.
Fixed server roles cannot be removed.
You can view information about role membership by querying the sys.server_role_members catalog view.
Permissions
Requires CONTROL permission on the server role or ALTER ANY SERVER ROLE permission.
Examples
A. To drop a server role
The following example drops the server role purchasing.
DROP SERVER ROLE purchasing;  
GO  
B. To view role membership
To view role membership, use the Server Role (Members) page in SQL Server Management Studio or execute the following query:
SELECT SRM.role_principal_id, SP.name AS Role_Name,   
SRM.member_principal_id, SP2.name  AS Member_Name  
FROM sys.server_role_members AS SRM  
JOIN sys.server_principals AS SP  
    ON SRM.Role_principal_id = SP.principal_id  
JOIN sys.server_principals AS SP2   
    ON SRM.member_principal_id = SP2.principal_id  
ORDER BY  SP.name,  SP2.name  
C. To view role membership
To determine whether a server role owns another server role, execute the following query:
SELECT SP1.name AS RoleOwner, SP2.name AS Server_Role  
FROM sys.server_principals AS SP1  
JOIN sys.server_principals AS SP2  
    ON SP1.principal_id = SP2.owning_principal_id   
ORDER BY SP1.name ;  
See Also
ALTER ROLE (Transact-SQL)
CREATE ROLE (Transact-SQL)
Principals (Database Engine)
DROP ROLE (Transact-SQL)
EVENTDATA (Transact-SQL)
sp_addrolemember (Transact-SQL)
sys.database_role_members (Transact-SQL)
sys.database_principals (Transact-SQL)