Running into an issue trying to start up SQL server services on clustered environment

  • We have a SQL 2008 SQL environment running off of an Active, Active, Passive setup. I am running into an issue trying to bring up the server service online. I scrolled through the event viewer windows logs and noticed the following being reported-

    initerrlog: Could not open error log file 'Y:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG'. Operating system error = 3(The system cannot find the path specified.

    I went to that location (and also checked the start up parameters) and noticed that the error logs were in its correct location.

    Here are the start up parameters

    -dY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf;-eY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG;-lY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf

    I noticed that the error logs had not updated since 9-18-2012 00:00:15 (this was its last entry)

    2012-09-18 00:00:15.33 spid15s This instance of SQL Server has been using a process ID of 5192 since 8/27/2012 9:25:56 AM (local) 8/27/2012 2:25:56 PM (UTC). This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    So with that being said, I checked the registry files to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary and of course, the registry file looks to be correct as well

    SQLArg0 -dY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf

    SQLArg1 -eY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG

    SQLArg2 -lY:\systemDB\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf

    We are using a service account (same one that was used to install SQL and as stated earlier everything was working fine up until now) nothing has changed and this was running for a few months. If anyone has any suggestions or anything else to look into that would be extremely helpful as I have banged my head against the wall all morning. Please note that I have also failed over and did even a restart of the active node with still no luck.

    Thanks.

  • Does the SQL Server cluster resource have a dependency on the Y:\ drive?

    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

  • No. These are mountpoint drives. There should not be any dependencies on that drive

  • And that would be your problem - without the dependencies, SQL Server cannot see the drive. Since SQL Server cannot see the drive - it cannot be started.

    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

  • Ok- I just glanced at the dependency report and this is what I see so far (sorry, clustering is still a bit new for me and I am working through it)

    'Mountpoints' has no required dependencies.

    'SQL Server' dependencies are 'Name: SQLINSTANCENAME' and 'Mountpoints'.

    'SQL Server' has no required dependencies.

    'SQL Server Agent' dependencies are 'SQL Server'.

    'SystemDB' dependencies are 'Mountpoints'.

    So it looks to have the required dependencies after all. Also, if that was to be the case, how would something like this occur when it was working initially for the past few months? I spoke with everyone and they are telling me no one has touched that environment and no one has gone in there to make any changes.

  • bkasrai (9/19/2012)


    I spoke with everyone and they are telling me no one has touched that environment and no one has gone in there to make any changes.

    Everyone is possibly not everyone. There's also the chance there was a pending change that was activated at some point much later then when the change was made.

    It's also possible, and probable, someone made a change they forgot about or think is unrelated.

  • Great. So is there really any way I could further look into resolving this without holding a figurative gun to someones head?

  • There might be something in Windows, but I'm not familiar enough to know what you'd have to check. Someone or something (patch, SP) might have altered the dependency somehow. Or perhaps you have firmware changes that delayed the starting of those mountpoints. Hard to know.

  • Excellent. I will go ahead and check with our Systems Engineering team for anything of the sort. I appreciate the quick replies and any assistance you were able to offer. Thanks again!

  • It could be related to when the Y:\ drive is actually becoming available. If that was never set as a dependency before - and it was coming up before anything else you wouldn't see an issue.

    Now, due to system patches or changes on the SAN that drive is taking longer to come up and SQL Server cannot see it.

    I would normally expect to see the mount points dependent on the drive that hosts them. Not sure if that is a requirement or not - but it is something I would look into further.

    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

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