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SQL Error – SQL Server service failed to Start | Windows could not start the SQL Server

December 15, 2016 Leave a comment Go to comments

 
Today I was trying to connect to a SQL Server instance of my DEV machine from SSMS, it took bit more time than usual and threw me an error:

Cannot connect to [SQL_Instance_name], A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 2)

 

I immediately checked SQL Services, and yes the SQL Server service was not running. But when I tried to run the service it didn’t turn up and it gave me an error:

Windows could not start the SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor, and refer to service-specific error code 14.

sqlservicesdown
 

Now, the only thing to know what would have happened is the Event viewer.

–> You can open “Event Viewer” by any of the below options:

1. Shortcut: Eventvwr.msc

2. Type “Event Viewer” in search box on Windows 8 and above.

3. Open Control Panel –> System and Maintenance –> Administrative Tools –> Event Viewer
 

Now on the “Event Viewer” window go to: Windows Logs –> Application

Check the logs on the General or Details tab:

eventviewer-for-sqlserver

I checked all errors and it threw following errors in sequence:

Error: 49910, Severity: 10, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

Error: 17312, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

Error: 17300, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

Error: 33086, Severity: 10, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.
 

Error: 701, Severity: 17, State: 65. There is insufficient system memory in resource pool ‘internal’ to run this query.
 

–> So, if you query these errors in sys.messages then you will see that one of the error (id = 17300) is related to insufficient memory:

select * 
from sys.messages 
where language_id = 1033 
and message_id IN (49910,17312, 17300, 33086)

SQL Server was unable to run a new system task, either because there is insufficient memory or the number of configured sessions exceeds the maximum allowed in the server. Verify that the server has adequate memory. Use sp_configure with option ‘user connections’ to check the maximum number of user connections allowed. Use sys.dm_exec_sessions to check the current number of sessions, including user processes.

 

–> Let’s also check SQL Server ERROR LOGS, go to Error Log location on you SQL Server machine: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server \MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER \MSSQL\Log

I’ve removed unnecessary part here as the error log was too long, highlighted the real cause of the issue, and that is: Failed allocate pages: FAIL_PAGE_ALLOCATION 1.


2016-12-15 09:34:14.82 Server SQL Server detected 2 sockets with 10 cores per socket and 10 logical processors per socket, 20 total logical processors; using 20 logical processors based on SQL Server licensing. This is an informational message; no user action is required.
2016-12-15 09:34:14.82 Server SQL Server is starting at normal priority base (=7). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
2016-12-15 09:34:14.82 Server Detected 143359 MB of RAM. This is an informational message; no user action is required.

2016-12-15 09:34:15.27 Server Using dynamic lock allocation. Initial allocation of 2500 Lock blocks and 5000 Lock Owner blocks per node. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
2016-12-15 09:34:15.27 Server Lock partitioning is enabled. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.
2016-12-15 09:34:20.30 Server Failed allocate pages: FAIL_PAGE_ALLOCATION 1
2016-12-15 09:31:14.07 Server
Process/System Counts Value
—————————————- ———-
Available Physical Memory 145982603264
Available Virtual Memory 140678812086272
Available Paging File 167077097472
Working Set 337784832
Percent of Committed Memory in WS 100
Page Faults 94990
System physical memory high 1
System physical memory low 0
Process physical memory low 1
Process virtual memory low 0
2016-12-15 09:31:14.07 Server Error: 49910, Severity: 10, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SQLGENERAL (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 1240
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17312, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server SQL Server shutdown has been initiated

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SQLCONNECTIONPOOL (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 48
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17300, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SNI (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 16
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17300, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

MEMORYCLERK_SQLXP (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 16
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17300, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SOSNODE (Total) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 26888
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17300, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SOSOS (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 192
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17312, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.
MEMORYCLERK_SOSMEMMANAGER (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 480
VM Committed 336
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 0
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server SQL Server shutdown has been initiated

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_XE (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 376
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 33086, Severity: 10, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server
MEMORYCLERK_SQLLOGPOOL (node 0) KB
—————————————- ———-
VM Reserved 0
VM Committed 0
Locked Pages Allocated 0
SM Reserved 0
SM Committed 0
Pages Allocated 152
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server Error: 17312, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 Server SQL Server shutdown has been initiated
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 spid14s Error: 701, Severity: 17, State: 107.
2016-12-15 09:31:14.08 spid14s There is insufficient system memory in resource pool ‘internal’ to run this query.

In the Error Log above you can also see the Error IDs we saw in Event Log, I’ve highlighted them with the Memory Clerks.
 

–> Now let’s wee if we can start SQL Server with minimal configuration by applying the Startup Parameter “-f”:

Open SQL Server Configuration Manager (SSCM) –> select “SQL Server Services” –> right click on SQL Server service, and select Properties.

sqlserverconfigmgr

Add “-f” as Startup Parameter, as shown below.

startupparam-f

Again go back to the SSCM and Start the SQL Server service, this time it will start as you have set SQL Server to run with minimum configuration, and thus it will run on limited memory.
 

–> Now I opened the SSMS and connected to the respective instance, under Object Explorer right click on Instance name, and selected Properties. Moved to the Memory page and checked the Maximum server memory (in MB) setting. It was just 128 MB, so I increased it to 110 GB as my server RAM was 140 GB.

sqlservermemory
 

–> Again went to the SSCM and removed the Startup Parameter “-f”, and restarted SQL Server services.

Now I was able to login to SQL Server instance without any issues !!!


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  1. Eben Raja
    March 16, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    Where you able to find what caused the max server memory to be rest to 128 MB as i have faced the same issue on SQL2012 SP1 and got out of the issue with this single and multi user mode technique. In my event viewer i can clearly see the max memory has been reset to 128 MB but i dont have an clue who did it and nor able to find.

    Was your case the same and where you able to find how the memory dwindled to 128 MB ?

    • March 16, 2017 at 9:39 pm

      Same here, I also didn’t know the real reason how memory got set to such low.

  2. Rajendran
    June 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    This blog is very helpful and we resolved the issue quickly.

  3. Šime Martinov
    July 9, 2018 at 12:47 pm

    Thank you for this good overview of the situation! I had this same problem a few days ago, however, I know the exact reason – it was me 🙂 I just started my internship and I’m not experienced. I was manually modifying the maximum memory (to limit SQL as to allow other services and OS some breathing space) and I accidentally confirmed “44” instead of “45056” (meaning, 44 MB instead of 44 GB). It completely crashed the entire service and blocked me from re-rerunning it again until we fixed it in a similar way via the sqlcmd.

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