November 6, 2013 at 11:32 am
I have a Database that went into Restoring State for unknown reason.
I had recovered it this morning. Then I performed a Full and Transaction Log Backup.
I treid restoring to a new database but I get errors that the device does not exist.
I specified a Database with a Restore Sufix for now for proof of concept.
Could I do the following?
1.Stop the service (MSSQLSERVER);
2.Rename or delete the Database and Log files (C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data...) or wherever you have the files;
3.Start the service (MSSQLSERVER);
4.Delete the database with problem;
5.Restore the database again.
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November 6, 2013 at 1:48 pm
I would run a DBCC CHECKDB against the restored copy (probably off hours, as this will hit the disk pretty hard), just to be sure everything is correct with the restored copy. I would be much more concerned over the root cause of the database going to a restoring state. Without knowing that, this particular database could surprise you at just about any time.
November 6, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Restoring or recovering?
A DB will go restoring if someone runs BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY or runs a restore over the database and specifies NORECOVERY. In either case running RESTORE DATABASE <db name> WITH RECOVERY will bring it back online. Can also happen if someone starts a restore and stops the restore part way through (perhaps realising they were restoring over the wrong DB)
A database will go into the recovering state if SQL is restarted and that DB was not cleanly shut down. It's a temporary state, once recovery has completed the DB will come online.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
November 6, 2013 at 3:20 pm
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Restoring or recovering?A DB will go restoring if someone runs BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY or runs a restore over the database and specifies NORECOVERY. In either case running RESTORE DATABASE <db name> WITH RECOVERY will bring it back online. Can also happen if someone starts a restore and stops the restore part way through (perhaps realising they were restoring over the wrong DB)
A database will go into the recovering state if SQL is restarted and that DB was not cleanly shut down. It's a temporary state, once recovery has completed the DB will come online.
I went into a restoring state.
I was able to restore the database.
Thank you.
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November 6, 2013 at 10:03 pm
Then check jobs, maintenance plans, make sure you don't have something trying to do a tail-log backup (backup with norecovery) and that no one restored the wrong DB (error log and backup/restore history will help there)
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
November 7, 2013 at 4:03 am
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Restoring or recovering?A DB will go restoring if someone runs BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY ....
In what might be an epic role reversal, don't you mean RESTORE LOG etc.?
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November 7, 2013 at 4:16 am
Grant Fritchey (11/7/2013)
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Restoring or recovering?A DB will go restoring if someone runs BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY ....
In what might be an epic role reversal, don't you mean RESTORE LOG etc.?
No, I really do mean backup.
If you try a RESTORE LOG on a database that's online, all you'll get is an error (no files are ready to roll forward), the database state won't change. If you do a tail log backup (BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY) then you're telling SQL you want to take a log backup and ensure that no more transactions can be done after the backup (it's done prior to starting a restore or moving a database). It will then do the backup (to DISK or whereever else) and once the backup completes the database will switch into the restoring state. This ensures that the log backup captured the very last transactions that ran so that none are lost.
The problem is, both the backup wizard and the maintenance plan backup task have the option 'back up the tail of the log' in them, if that's selected erroneously (especially in a maintenance plan), then the database will appear to switch into RESTORING for no good reason.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
November 7, 2013 at 10:21 am
GilaMonster (11/7/2013)
No, I really do mean backup.If you try a RESTORE LOG on a database that's online, all you'll get is an error (no files are ready to roll forward), the database state won't change. If you do a tail log backup (BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY) then you're telling SQL you want to take a log backup and ensure that no more transactions can be done after the backup (it's done prior to starting a restore or moving a database). It will then do the backup (to DISK or whereever else) and once the backup completes the database will switch into the restoring state. This ensures that the log backup captured the very last transactions that ran so that none are lost.
The problem is, both the backup wizard and the maintenance plan backup task have the option 'back up the tail of the log' in them, if that's selected erroneously (especially in a maintenance plan), then the database will appear to switch into RESTORING for no good reason.
Wow, did not know this. I was about to ask what Grant did.
And yet, it does cause it to go into restoring:
CREATE DATABASE MyRestoreTest
;
GO
BACKUP DATABASE MyRestoreTest TO DISK ='myrestoretest.bak';
GO
CREATE TABLE mytable( id INT)
;
GO
BACKUP LOG myrestoretest TO DISK = 'myrestoretest_log.trn' WITH norecovery
and I can get things back.
November 7, 2013 at 12:13 pm
I believe you can also use BACKUP DATABASE ... WITH NORECOVERY; and it does the same thing. Very good for taking a last backup when migrating to a new system.
Jeffrey Williams
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November 12, 2013 at 4:07 pm
But for "BACKUP LOG DB_Name...........WITH NORECOVERY" to run successfully, SQL server needs exclusive access on the respective database right? If there's any active session in the Database, it won't let you take log backup with norecovery and fails with below error and shouldn't go to "RESTORING" state. Please correct me If I am wrong...
Msg 3101, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Exclusive access could not be obtained because the database is in use.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
BACKUP LOG is terminating abnormally.
November 13, 2013 at 7:12 am
Grant Fritchey (11/7/2013)
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Restoring or recovering?A DB will go restoring if someone runs BACKUP LOG ... WITH NORECOVERY ....
In what might be an epic role reversal, don't you mean RESTORE LOG etc.?
Gail is correct here, BACKUP LOG WITH NORECOVERY is used to take a tail log backup and is also used for role switching in a log shipping configuration.
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May 14, 2015 at 8:57 pm
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Can also happen if someone starts a restore and stops the restore part way through (perhaps realising they were restoring over the wrong DB).
Could you tell me what to do in this situation? Is there anyway to recover the victimized database? Did the restore not roll back when they hit cancel?
May 14, 2015 at 11:47 pm
afw (5/14/2015)
GilaMonster (11/6/2013)
Can also happen if someone starts a restore and stops the restore part way through (perhaps realising they were restoring over the wrong DB).Could you tell me what to do in this situation? Is there anyway to recover the victimized database? Did the restore not roll back when they hit cancel?
Drop the partially restored DB and start the restore from scratch. The DB that got restored over is gone.
Restores can't be run in a transaction and the first thing they do is start overwriting the file on disk
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
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