karend211 34657 (4/25/2014)
I need to better understand under what circumstances you would rebuild versus restore the system databases?
If you wanted to change the system collation.
karend211 34657 (4/25/2014)
I brought up a "what if" scenario were the sql server would not start and we had to rebuild a new server. I was told, all I had to do in that case was restore the master db - no problem.
Why would you need a new server just because sql server won't start?? What you'd do is check the event logs to see why sql server won't start and work from there.
If your master database was indeed corrupted you would restore it from backups, most backup policies take a copy of the raw files and use them as a backup base. You could even restore the backup of master to a different instance as a user database then detach it. Rename the disk files to master.mdf and mastlog.ldf and plug them into the broken instance then start the service.
karend211 34657 (4/25/2014)
However, if the sql won't start, there is no restoring the master database, it must be rebuilt, is that correct? That is what I've found so far in Microsoft's documentation anyway...Thank you,
Karen
There are many reasons why the SQL Server service may fail to start, most common is a missing folder or permissions.
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