Multiple Server Reboot with SQL Server 2008 R2 on it

  • Hi Experts,

    Our network team needs to upgrade firmware and other things on the server which has SQL Server 2008 on it. For this upgrade they will need to reboot machine at least 3-4 times in about 30 mins window. This server has about 20 databases on it and most of them are over 100 GB with the biggest one being 600 GB. Once the machine is rebooted, of course SQL Databases take some time to recover.

    If we restart machine 3-4 times in this small time window, Can there be any problem with the databases? What happens if they are not recovered during the first reboot and we reboot it again? Any suggestions will help. Thanks in advance...

  • what i might do is manually shut down the service then disable the SQL Server service while they do their multiple reboots then once they are done restart and re-enable the service. Since im not sure as to whether the multiple restarts would do any harm but i know not starting SQL Server durring the reboots will prevent any issues that may be possible i would probably go that route.


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  • Thanks capnhector. That is what I am planning to do, but was just curious to know if not then this can real cause any corruption etc...

  • apat (11/12/2012)


    That is what I am planning to do, but was just curious to know if not then this can real cause any corruption etc...

    Not unless the reboots or updates mess up the IO subsystem, and if they do it won't make much difference if SQL is running or not.

    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

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Thanks for the reply GilaMonster.

    Question, so what happens if a 600 GB database is halfway recovering and the machine is rebooted? How does SQL Server treat that database? Does the recovery just get aborted and start again after server is up?

  • apat (11/12/2012)


    Does the recovery just get aborted and start again after server is up?

    Yup.

    The last thing done in a recovery is a checkpoint. If the checkpoint does not complete (for whatever reason), recovery just starts over from the beginning after SQL restarts.

    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

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Ok got it. I was just worried for database corruption. Then I may not stop SQL Service; I think there is no harm in rebooting machine 3-4 times in 30-40 mins time frame.

  • Database corruption is notn something that SQL can or will do itself. It's something that's caused by misbehaving components, usually in the IO subsystem.

    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

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • you can use

    CHECKPOINT command

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