• I took a pot-shot at the answer, because all of them looked to be wrong. Needless to say the answer I chose was marked wrong...

    It is not necessary to detach msdb in order to move it, but if you go down this route than SQL Agent must be stopped before you try to detach msdb.

    If you have detached msdb, remove the trace flags as specified in the 'correct' answer, and restart SQL you will have a fine mess to deal with. I would always leave the -T3608 flag on until msdb is safely attached again. The other flags are simply not needed to get the job done.

    The best approach is given in BOL - do a ALTER giving the new locations for the database files, stop SQL, move the files, and restart.

    Personally, I always keep mssqlsystemresource files in the same folder as master, and leave them in the vanilla install location. The SP2 apply puts a new version of mssqlsystemresource on to your system, and it only puts it in the vanilla install location. If you have previously moved master or mssqlsystemresource you can have big problems in applying SP2. Because of this, I do not assume that future SPs or CUs will be able to cope with anything other than vanilla locations for these critical files. The last thing I need is for a future upgrade to fail because I have moved master or mssqlsystemresource to different locations so they give a zero % performance improvement but comply with standards for user databases. I also take a copy of master and mssqlsystemresource .mdf and .ldf files, and keep them handy in case I need to restore these DBs. This backup copy should be refreshed after any SP or CU install. IMHO is is a severe design fault that SQL needs a working mssqlsystemresource DB, but we have no way in SQL of taking a backup or applying a restore.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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