March 4, 2004 at 6:04 am
In effort to test our backup and recovery procedures we recently backed up a sever (using Archsev) with SQL Server 2000 sp3 on it. We then restored the entire sever to a different machine on a different network without a domain. Now I’m unable to start SQL Server, it errors out with the following:
“An error 3 -(The system cannot find the path specified) occurred while performing this service operation on the MSSQLServer Service.”
Any ideas what path this error is referring to?
The following are the steps we took
1. Stopped SQL Server Services on Server ABC.
2. Did a Full Backup of the entire environment on Server ABC using Arcserve.
3. Used Arcserve to restored the backup of the entire environment from Server ABC to Server XYZ.
4. Attempted to start SQL Server on Server XYZ and received the error about the path.
a. Through Component Services Failed
b. SQL Server Service Manager Failed
c. Command Prompt using Net Start Failed
d. Command Prompt using sqlservr.exe –c Successful
I can use sqlservr.exe –c to start the server from the command prompt then I can use Enterprise Manager view “SQL Server Properties”.
The Server XYZ dose not belong to the same domain as Server ABC.
Server ABC used a domain account for the Startup service account.
Any ideas how to get SQL Server running again?
Thanks
March 4, 2004 at 6:28 am
You may have to rebuild the registry.
It sounds like entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer\Parameters
are not correct.
March 4, 2004 at 6:47 am
How about going into Admin Tools --> Services and checking that the SQL Server service is running under a localsystem accout rather than a Domain user account. If you are not on the domain it's not going to be able to authenticate the user and start SQL.
March 4, 2004 at 7:07 am
Thanks for the quick replies,
I have already checked the component service account, the service was running with the domain account, I have tried using a local administrator account but it hasn’t worked.
I checked the registry keys and they match the original server settings
I have checked the permission on the SQL directories.
I don’t understand why I can start the database sqlservr.exe from the command prompt but not by the other methods previously listed Any ideas?
Thanks
March 4, 2004 at 7:15 am
Do you get error messages in the System or Application event logs?
March 4, 2004 at 8:37 am
Yes in the System Log
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 3/1/2004
Time: 3:33:58 PM
User: N/A
Computer: XYZ
Description:
The MSSQLSERVER service failed to start due to the following error:
The system cannot find the path specified.
March 4, 2004 at 8:52 am
Check the registry for
Hkey_Local_Machine-->Software-->Microsoft-->MSSQLServer-->Setup and confirm the SQLDataRoot path and the SQLPath path.
Also check
Hkey_Local_Machine-->Software-->Microsoft-->Microsoft SQL Server-->80 and check the SharedCode key.
March 4, 2004 at 11:13 am
Since I’m pressed for time on this issue and this is our disaster recovery environment, I went ahead and reinstalled SQL Server with SP3. Then restored the master database which seemed to have identified the databases that existed on Server ABC. However I’m not able to restore the msdb database, I receive the same error; Error 3 - The system cannot find the path specified.
Reinstalling SQL Server is definitely not the solution I want. Does anyone have any ideas on this new issue?
March 4, 2004 at 11:16 am
Did you start SQL in single user mode before attempting to restore msdb.
March 4, 2004 at 12:01 pm
Thanks for all of your responses!!
No I did not start SQL Server in Single user mode to restore msdb
Steps taken:
1. Reinstalled SQL Server
2. Installed SP3
3. Started SQL Server in Single user mode from the Command Prompt
4. Opened Enterprise Manager and restored the database master
-- After master was restored it recognized the original database
5. Restored the model database
6. Attempted to restore msdb databasenot in single user mode
7. Backed up msdb
8. Replaced the new backup of msdb with the original msdb backup from Server ABC
9. Restored msdb
10. Started SQLServerAgent
At that point everything seemed to be ok
I still would like to know why I’m not able to start SQL Server directly after a OS restore?
I plan to get a domain controller on our DR environment to rule out any domain issues.
Thanks again for your help
March 4, 2004 at 12:06 pm
Are you running on different hardware than the original box? There could be an issue with controllers and the machine getting confused as to what disk is on what controller. Check the disk administration configurations on both boxes and see if they 100% match.
March 5, 2004 at 5:22 pm
Hi,
I would not recommend performing DR for a machine/SQL Server using file backup technology. Unless the OS is switched off there are always going to be files which are still in use which will not get backed up.
In your DR plan, I would always schedule a reinstall of SQL Server, this is the most reliable method of ensuring you don't get any issues.
You should backup your SQL Server Databases to Local disk and let arcserve then backup these files to tape. This is the documented best practice.
It is also worth putting your install files on your DR server, so you don't have to look for them in the middle of the night.
Regards
Douglas Chrystall
Imceda Software
"SQL LiteSpeed, the fastest and Most Secure way to backup SQL Server"
March 8, 2004 at 5:53 am
Following up on what Douglas said regarding backups, one thing that you might be tempted to do is to use the SQL Client for arcserve to allow you to backup the databases live....don't do it....I have tried and had nothing but problems with the restores...
March 12, 2004 at 9:43 am
All,
Thanks so much for your responses.
Based on these two articles http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;814848 and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;240240 this is our problem.
To quickly rap them both up; files and folders have two names associated with them a long name a short name. Short name are applied as applications are installed. When a backups is preformed the short name is not captured, when backup is restored new short names are applied but not in the same order as when the applications were installed.
The articles resolution to this problem is to reinstall any programs that exhibit this behavior. We really don’t want to do a new install of SQL Server because of the possibility of differences in configuration settings.
I have been able to start SQL Server and SQL Server Agent by changing the short name path for SQL Server to the full path in the following registry locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSSQLSERVER
Before Change:
d:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\MSSQL\binn\sqlservr.exe
After Change:
D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SQLSERVERAGENT
Before Change:
d:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\MSSQL\binn\sqlagent.exe
After Change:
D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn\sqlagent.exe
I have some concerns with making these type of changes.
Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated!
Shawn
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