Named Instance services should be set to manual or can be automatic?

  • We are creating the named instance on cluster server. I was wondering if the sql engine service and agent service should be set to manual or auto? If it is required to set to manual then do you have to start manually each reboot?

  • During the installation of a cluster all the cluster aware services are set to manual. The reason is probably because when the server reboots you want to be in control if the service starts.

    In some situations you could imagine that you (in case of a two-node cluster) want "server1" to be the active one instead of "server2".

    If you set it to manual you'' have to start the services by hand everytime the server reboots.

    You can set the services to automatic after the installation.

  • sanderstad (9/8/2010)


    During the installation of a cluster all the cluster aware services are set to manual. The reason is probably because when the server reboots you want to be in control if the service starts.

    In some situations you could imagine that you (in case of a two-node cluster) want "server1" to be the active one instead of "server2".

    If you set it to manual you'' have to start the services by hand everytime the server reboots.

    You can set the services to automatic after the installation.

    No - do not set the services to automatic in a cluster. Cluster administrator manages all clustered resources and will start them on the active node for that group. If you set them to automatic, then cluster administrator cannot manage the service and you will have problems - mostly, you will not be able to failover.

    During a manual failover, cluster administrator will take the resources offline on the current node. Once the resource is offline, cluster administrator will start the resource on the other node. If that resource is already started - because it was set to automatic - the move will fail and the resource will not be available in the cluster.

    Jeffrey Williams
    “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

    ― Charles R. Swindoll

    How to post questions to get better answers faster
    Managing Transaction Logs

  • Another point...

    For a Clustered instance, always use Cluster Manager to start, stop, failover SQL / SQL Agent (or any clustered component), not SQL Server Configuration Manager or Services Manager. If you use Cluster Manager, you will avoid all the potential startup issues.

    Clustering is not complicated, but there are a lot of moving parts, I would suggest taking the time to researchg on MSDN (and elsewhere).

  • Another vote for Jefferey and Simon. Use Cluster Manager, leave the services alone.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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