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SQL Server Service Pack installation may fail if your instance name is a...
Okay, so I woke up one morning and decided that this was a good day to patch my SQL Server 2008 R2 instance (named LPT2) to Service Pack 1. So I just downloaded the Service Pack from the Microsoft...
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Implementing SSL encryption for SQL Server in a DNS forwarding environment
Let’s say you have an environment which implements DNS forwarding. In such a setup, the client uses a different name (or FQDN) while connecting to SQL Server than the actual SQL Server name (or FQDN)....
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An interesting find about Temp tables in SQL Server
I ran into a very interesting issue with temp tables recently. The issue description goes something like this. We have an application preparing some SQL statements, and sending them to the SQL Database...
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SQL 2008/R2 setup fails with "Wait on the database engine recovery handle...
When installing SQL Server 2008/2008 R2, you might come across a situation where the setup fails towards the end, when trying to start the SQL Server services. You find this message in the...
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SQL Server Patch installation fails with error 1603
Ran into this interesting issue recently. I was trying to install a patch on SQL, and it failed. I searched in the hotfix.log (since this was a SQL 2005 instance), and found these messages:- 02/03/2012...
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Windows Server 2003 - KB 2463332 for Windows Internal Database fails to install
This is an interesting issue that I ran into, and took some time to find out the steps for resolution. What was happening was the customer was receiving repeated prompts for installing KB 2463332 for...
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An interesting “Issue” with adding Windows Logins in SQL Server
Now here’s one that had me stumped for quite some time. A brief description of the issue:- 1. I have 2 instances of SQL Server set up on different servers, both with a Case sensitive collation 2....
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VSS backups might cause SQL to generate Non-Yielding Scheduler dumps if...
Found an interesting Non-Yielding scheduler recently. Opened the dump, and found function calls related to backup verification (such as validating the file name, verifying that the drive is part of...
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Access Violation dumps and metadata corruption
This is an issue that I had been busy working on these past few days. We were getting AV dumps on the DB, and when I looked at the stack, I found that SQL was calling a function to get the name of a...
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SQL 2005 Patch on cluster might fail with “No Passive nodes were successfully...
This is one of those “rare” setup issues you might run into, on a “Bad luck” day. The patch fails, and in the summary.txt, you see this at the bottom:- Summary No passive nodes were successfully...
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SQL 2005 patch fails with 1642 “Unable to install Windows Installer MSP file”
This one is for all my DBA friends out there. I recently ran into this issue when running a security patch installation for a SQL 2005 instance on SP4. The setup failed, and when I looked into the...
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How to replace/restore start menu shortcuts for any program
Okay, let me admit first up that this is not an out and out SQL Server issue, but one of those interesting ones, that required me to provide an easy workaround. What happened was, someone (or some...
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SQL, Sharepoint and the Windows Internal Database – an interesting saga
This one is for all my friends out there who use Sharepoint. A default Sharepoint installation enables/installs the Windows Internal database, and creates its databases on it. The Windows Internal...
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SQL Server Resource database corruption–yes, it’s possible
It’s very rare that I run into an issue with the Resource database, and the one I ran into recently was rarer still. But before I get into the nitty-gritty of the issue, let us begin by outlining a few...
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The ‘NULL’ Debate, and a few other interesting facts
This is for all my developer friends out there. I recently had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine on the enigma called NULL and how it’s different from, say, an empty string. This is...
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SQL 2008/2008 R2/2012 setup disappears/fails when installing Setup Support files
I’m sure many of you would have seen this issue when running SQL 2008/2008 R2 setup on a new server. The setup will proceed to install Setup support files, the window will disappear but, strangely...
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How a tiny little whitespace can make life difficult for your SQL Cluster
Remember that tiny little whitespace that we tend to ignore most of the time? Believe it or not, there are situations when you could pay heavily if you don’t pay attention to this itsy-bitsy little...
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Backup database results in error “Could not clear 'DIFFERENTIAL' bitmap in...
I recently ran into yet another issue, where the error message had absolutely no relation to the final solution. When trying to back up a database, we were getting the following error: Msg 18273, Level...
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The most interesting issue in DB Mirroring you will ever see
I recently worked on a very interesting “issue” in DB mirroring, relevant to a very specific scenario. Read on to find out more. Basically, we have a setup which looks something like this: Initial...
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An in-depth look at Ghost Records in SQL Server
Ghost records are something that are a bit of an enigma for most folks working with SQL Server, and not just because of the name. Today, I’ll seek to explain the concept, as well as identify some...
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