password Policy

[yogesphu]

Yesterday somehow the sa account got locked and i ran following statement to unlock it

alter login sa with check_policy = off
go
alter logn sa with check_policy = on
go

This worked well.

This query helped keeping the same password. but i was just wondering what exactly happens internally? how exactly does it work?
i mean how come just setting password policy on and off unlokced the account and i dint have to even change the password??

Plz!!!

[rmiao]

You just told sql to follow domain password policy or not, pwd will not expire if don't follow domain policy.

[yogesphu]

but according to password policy:

When CHECK_POLICY is changed to OFF, the following behaviors occur:

CHECK_EXPIRATION is also set to OFF.

The password history is cleared.

The value of lockout_time is reset.

How come it did not clear my current password along with the history???

[rmiao]

It disables policy but not reset pwd.