SQL Server Crashes and Critical Failures

SQL Server has 3 parameters used upon engine startup.

1) The location of the master data file

2) The location of the master log file.

3) The location of the errorlog.

Let's take a look at these startup options. We will also create a shortcut to the command line because we will use it most of the time to troubleshot startup failures.

There are two kinds of instances.

The default instance... which is the name of the server, laptop... etc.

Then there are named instances... A named instance is identified by the network name of the computer plus the instance name that you specify during installation.

The most common reason the SQL Server engine will fail to start is permission errors associated with the user login you've designated to start that service.

Let's learn to troubleshoot this and correct it quickly.

Often times DBAs like to change the default port of the instance for security purposes.

However, they often forget to see if that port is already in use.

In this lesson we are going to learn how to check for used ports and change the port number for our instance.

Let's go over what we learned in this section.

We need to see what a clean errorlog looks like so we can spot the anomalies when they happen.

Int this first lecture we will begin combing through the SQL Server errorlog line by line.

In this lecture we will continue to comb through the SQL Server errorlog line by line.

In this lecture we will continue to comb through the SQL Server errorlog line by line.

In this lecture we will wrap up dissecting our errorlog.

In this lecture we will summarize what we've covered in the SQL Server errorlogs.

The resource db is a hidden system database.

It's a true database but we back it up and restore it differently.

Additionally, there are a few tricks we can employ to recover it in an outage.

There is a straightforward way to restore the master database but it's contingent on two things.

Is the instance online?

Do you have a good backup for the master database?

Let's learn how to restore the master database the easy way.

This isn't the traditional method we will use to recover the model if it becomes corrupted.

However, the more tools we have at our disposal the better prepared we will be during a crisis.

In this lesson we are going to hack our way into SQL Server using our administrator rights at the OS level.

It's a tip that comes in handy on the rare occasion you need it.

Repairing tempdb corruption is often straightforward.

In this lecture we will walk through how to recover tempdb in a crash.

Rebuilding the master database means starting over.

This isn't a fun task but we will walk through the entire process step by step.

Let's wrap up what we've learned.