SQL 2000 / MSDE won't start

[pdV6]

Argh! Following an "unscheduled restart" of my Win2k development machine, MSDE is refusing to start.

Clicking "start" on the system tray icon does nothing at all.
Manually starting the service makes it think for a bit and then report:

Microsoft Management Console said:

Could not start the MSSQLSERVER service on Local Computer. The service did not return an error. This could be an internal Windows error or an internal service error. If the problem persists, contact your system administrator.

Can't check the event log as that seems to be FUBAR also:

Event Viewer said:

Unable to complete the operation on "System Log". The interface is unknown.

Any ideas, chaps & chapesses?

[spivvy]

restart safe mode? or last know good?

may be a start

can you connect to event viewer from another computer, action from event viewer menu
to see if problem is logged

[jamieboy]

Worth disabling the event log service and rebooting, then rename the sysevent.evt, secevent.evt, appevent.evt files in c:\windows\system32\config and restart the event log service.

At worst, you should see why the SQL engine isn't starting, at best it might not be starting because it couldn't write to the event log.

[gopher]

SQL Logs pretty much everything , and does not lik starting if it can't log. As it also seems the event log is tits up, could it be that your event log is full? I've seen a few systems setup not to overwrite so this sort of thing happens.

Cheers

Paul

[pdV6]

Microsoft Management Console said:

Could not start the Event Log service on Local Computer. Error 1501: No event log file could be opened, so the event logging service did not start.

[jamieboy]

pdV6 said:

if you copy the .evt files from a working machine, does the service start OK?

[pdV6]

jamieboy said:

if you copy the .evt files from a working machine, does the service start OK?

Nope - same message.

[dilbert]

Is it logging events to another network machine?

[pdV6]

Nope

[jamieboy]

pdV6 said:

Nope - same message.

AFAIK, 1501 only ever means "can't write to the event logs", so if they're in the right place (same as specified in HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog) and SYSTEM has Full Control, then you should be laughing. If the file permissions look OK on the ones you've just copied over, then I'm stumped.

[spivvy]

don't know if you followed this procedure but worth a try
safe mode didn't help then


The files may be corrupt.
Control Panel|Services|Event Log Service|General,
set the "Startup Type:" to "Disabled"
restart the server,
then delete (or move)
the corrupt SysEvent.Evt, SecEvent.Evt, AppEvent.Evt from
%systemroot%system32config
then set the Event Log Service "Startup Type:"
back to "Automatic",
restart for effect.

PLUS

If when you try and start the Event log service you get error 1501, unable to open Event log files this is usually caused by one of two things

* The event log files are missing
* The event log files have read only set on them

The event log files are stored in the %systemroot%system32config and are named appevent.evt, secevent.evt and sysevent.evt. If any files are missing try copying from another machine and if the read only attribute is set remove via Explorer.

It is possible to move the event log files and to check you are looking in the correct place check the registry entries:

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesEventLogApplicationFile
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesEventLogSecurityFile
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesEventLogSystemFile


>> Edited by spivvy on Tuesday 6th December 17:00

[pdV6]

jamieboy said:

pdV6 said: Nope - same message. AFAIK, 1501 only ever means "can't write to the event logs", so if they're in the right place (same as specified in HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetServicesEventlog) and SYSTEM has Full Control, then you should be laughing. If the file permissions look OK on the ones you've just copied over, then I'm stumped.

Well spotted! Copying the files obviously couldn't bring the SYSTEM permissions across from t'other PC.
Hooray - the Event Log is now running.

But... the SQL service still refuses to start, giving the same (non) error! Any more ideas?

[dilbert]

There are some other error codes associated with the event log;

1500 The event log file is corrupted. ERROR_EVENTLOG_FILE_CORRUPT
1501 No event log file could be opened, so the event logging service did not start. ERROR_EVENTLOG_CANT_START
1502 The event log file is full. ERROR_LOG_FILE_FULL
1503 The event log file has changed between read operations. ERROR_EVENTLOG_FILE_CHANGED

Those were all I could see, it might give you a clue as to what the problem is not?

HTH

[pdV6]

Aha!

The event logs now show that SQL Server is having file permission problems of its own...

Adding premissions for SYSTEM to various files seems to be improving matters...

[jamieboy]

Is it getting far enough to write anything to SQL server's own error logs? Sometimes they're more intelligible.

[pdV6]

Finally got it running - all the various system database and log files needed SYSTEM permissions setting!

Thanks for the pointers, guys!

[mattley]

pdV6 said:

all the various system database and log files needed SYSTEM permissions setting!

That's wrong!

Not wrong as in doesn't work, but wrong as in it looks like you've lost the W2K SQL permissions integration, and as such have probably corrupted the permissions database accross the whole machine.

IMO you should now back up the database files and rebuild the machine.

[pdV6]

mattley said:

IMO you should now ... rebuild the machine.

Really not an option!

Could you expand on your points a bit? What exactly is it that you think's happened?

Ta.

[neil_cardiff]

pdV6 got quite panicky and said:

Really not an option!

But surely it's a development machine, they always blow up...

Could ya ghost it, and then build it, reverting back to the Ghost image if you have to?

With my limited knowledge here, I'd say something went wrong

sits in background with oar

>> Edited by neil_cardiff on Wednesday 7th December 09:29

[pdV6]

neil_cardiff said:

pdV6 got quite panicky and said: Really not an option! But surely it's a development machine, they always blow up...

Actually, when I say "development" machine, I really mean my day-to-day PC I use for writing software on, rather than a test box. As such, its got a lot of stuff kicking around on it I wouldn't want to have to bother with reinistalling etc.