SQL Agent won't start

Question

SQL Agent won't start

MarkusB

SSC-Dedicated

Points: 37370
More actions
July 28, 2003 at 5:04 am

#160531

Hello everybody,
I just discovered a strange behaviour on one of our SQL servers. When I try to start the SQL Agent I get the message
quote:
[000] Unable to connect to server '(local)'; SQLServerAgent cannot start
or in the Services console:
Could not start SQLSERVERAGENT service on local computer. The service did not return an error. This could be an internal Windows error or an internal service error."
I checked the login and password and that's ok. The SQL Service uses the same domain user account and starts succesful. Restarting the machine didn't help. Fortunately the machine is a testserver so in the worst case I can reinstall. But I'd rather like to know what causes the problem and how to resolve it other than reinstalling.
Thanks in advance
Markus

[font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

jpipes SSChampion Points: 12230 More actions · Answer 1

Don't know if it's exactly the same error message, but I've found you have to be logged in locally to start the Agent service; ie, you can't start up EM on your machine, connect to a remote machine through EM, and start the Agent up. You have to log in to the remote machine and start it up from there.

MarkusB SSC-Dedicated Points: 37370 More actions · Answer 2

Jpipes, thanks for your reaction, but I don't think that's the issue here. I tried it remotely and logged on locally. At least after restarting the machine I would expect the SQL Agent to start.

[font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

jpipes SSChampion Points: 12230 More actions · Answer 3

You have to be a sysadmin to start it up, according to this page:

http://dbforums.com/arch/71/2003/6/832887

also, this KB article says something about the Certificate Authority name...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q302/4/09.ASP&NoWebContent=1&NoWebContent=1

any help?

MarkusB SSC-Dedicated Points: 37370 More actions · Answer 4

I am sysadmin (as well in NT as in SQL)and A certificate authority isn't involved either, after all it's just a test server.

As I wrote before I'm able to start and stop SQL Server Service, which uses the same domain account, but not the Agent. I'm starting to think there's some file corrupted.

[font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

jpipes SSChampion Points: 12230 More actions · Answer 5

Did you find anything in the SQL Server logs, or in the Event Viewer -> Applications log? Specifically, looking for something like 'Bypassing recovery for database 'msdb'...marked as Suspect'?

Johan Bijnens SSC Guru Points: 135376 More actions · Answer 6

is agent running on "local system" and did you remove "builtin\administrators" ?

Johan

Learn to play, play to learn !

Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:

- How to post Performance Problems
- How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]

- How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt

press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀

Need a bit of Powershell? How about this

Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me

MarkusB SSC-Dedicated Points: 37370 More actions · Answer 7

As stated before, the agent and the sqlservice use a domain user account. Built-in Administrators have been removed, but the account in question is added with sysadmin rights (otherwise the sqlservice won't start either).

I also tried starting the agent using the local system account, but receive the same message

quote:
Could not start SQLSERVERAGENT service on local computer. The service did not return an error. This could be an internal Windows error or an internal service error

So I'm

pretty sure that it's not a login problem.

Then trying to start the agent in EM for a moment it seems like it will start but when it stops. In the SQL agent log there's an error

quote:
[000] Unable to connect to server '(local)'; SQLServerAgent cannot start

and an info message

quote:
(098)SQL Agent has terminated (normal)

[font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

George Dunn SSC Enthusiast Points: 115 More actions · Answer 8

Seen this kind of problem (or a similar one) before. Check the Registry for SQL Server Agent entries and make sure that the path for the log file exist. The SQL Agent will not start if the directory where the log file is has been deleted or renamed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\MSSQLSERVER\SQLServerAgent errorlogfile

Cheers, George

GD

DAVNovak Hall of Fame Points: 3120 More actions · Answer 9

Is the domain account used for the agent also a member in the Administrators NT Group on the server?