Microsoft SQL Server 2005 service fails to start

Question

I’ve been trying to install Ms SQL Server 2005 for over two weeks now, and I’ve finally gotten to the point where the prerequisites all seem to be in place. Unfortunately, every time I try to install SQL Server itself, I get the following message:

“The SQL Server service failed to start. For more information, see the SQL Server Books Online topics, "How to: View SQL Server 2005 Setup Log Files" and "Starting SQL Server Manually."”

The installer then “rolls back” the install and I’m left with three uninstalled products in the Setup list: “SQL Server Database Services,” “Reporting Services,” and “Workstation Components, Books Online…”.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I can’t check the SQL Server Books Online topics because they don’t install, either; and I can’t make sense of the log files without them.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The SQL Setup Log is actually a very useful source of information when this happens - also, anything in the System or Application event logs?

Answer 2

While that error message is on the screen (before the rollback begins) go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and see if the service is actually installed. Also check what account it is using to run as. If it's not using Local System, then double and triple check that the account it's using has rights to the program directory where MS SQL installed to.

Answer 3

You can find SQL Server Books Online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214.aspx.

Answer 4

It looks like not all of your prerequisites are really working as they should be. Also, you'll want to make sure that you are installing from the console itself and not through any kind of remote session at all. (I know, this is a pain in the a@@, but sometimes it makes a difference.)

You can acess the SQL Server 2005 Books Online on the Web at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214(SQL.90).aspx. This documentation should help you decipher the logs.

Bonus tidbit: Once you get that far, if you plan on installing SP2 without getting an installation that fails and rolls back, another little pearl of wisdom is described here: http://blog.andreloker.de/post/2008/07/17/SQL-Server-hotfix-KB948109-fails-with-error-1920.aspx. (My issue was that the "SQL Server VSS Writer" (Service) was not even installed.) Good luck!

Answer 5

We had a similar problem recently withour running SQL 2005 servers (more specifically: The reporting services). The windows services didn't start anymore with no real error message whatsoever.

I found out that this problem was related to some KB hotfixes that have been deployed lately. For some reason those hotfixes resulted in the services taking longer than usually for starting up.

Since by default, there is a timeout that kills the service after 30 seconds when it was not able to go beyond the start methods, this was the reason why it simply terminated.

Maybe this is what you are experiencing.

Theres a work around described on Microsoft Connect (link). Although the hotfixes listed in this article didn't match the ones that have been deployed to our systems, the workaround worked for us.

Answer 6

I'd try just installing the tools and database services to start with. leave analysis, Rs etc and see if you get further. I do remeber having issues with failed installs so be sure to go into add/remove programs and remove all the pieces that the uninstaller is leaving behind

Answer 7

I have seen something similar before when the account the SQL Server is set to run under does not have the required permission.

Tangentially, once it is installed, a common mistake is to change the login credentials from Windows Services, not from SQL Server Configuration Manager. Although they look the same, the SQL Server tool grants access to some registry keys that the Windows tool does not, which can cause a problem on service startup.

You can run Sysinternals RegMon/Sysinternals ProcessMon while the install is running, filtering by sqlsevr.exe and Failure messages to see if the account credentials are a problem.

Hope this helps

Answer 8

I agree with Greg that the log is the best place to start. We've experienced something similar and the fix was to ensure that admins have full permissions to the registry location HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security prior to starting the installation. HTH.

Answer 9

I had a similar issue and this fixed my issue.

Here's one possible fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954835/en-us

Answer 10

This worked for me... http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2008/07/23/sql-server-2005-encounters-exception-during-install-when-system-has-odd-number-of-processors-or-logical-processors-per-core.aspx

Answer 11

THANKS it helped me alot.

while error message window was up...

I tried- Services>sqlserver(my sql server instance)>properties>log on as the account I wanted with admin rights> apply>ok

"Reclick retry" on error message window

Answer 12

Same as above, I set it to log on as a local system account