Hello,

I've set up a test active/passive cluster with sql 2000 and am trying
to run through some disaster recovery scenarios. First I am trying to
restore the master database but am having some trouble. Not sure if
this is a cluster related problem but this is the first time I have
experienced this issue and the only difference I can think of is that
this is a cluster config. Here are the steps I am following:

1) Take sql server and all sql related services offline in cluster
administrator
2) run sqlservr.exe -c -m from cmd. SQL server starts successfully in
single user mode. I leave cmd prompt window open.
3) Try to connect with QA to restore master but I get a message that
says something like I can't connect because sql server is in single
user mode and only one administrator can be connected. Same message
if I try to connect in EM.

Started sql server back up in multi user mode, started up profiler to
see what connections were there. There were 4 connections listed and
they are the windows cluster service account, sqlagent generic
refresher, sqlagent alert engine, and SQLDMO_1. All of the sql
connections were logged in with the domain sql service account. I
assume when sql server starts in single user mode that it prevents any
sql server service related LPC connections from blocking the single
user that initiated the start in single user mode command. That seems
to leave me with the windows cluster service account. This account is
a member of the builtin\admins sql group since it is a local admin, so
it has access to sql. Could this account be blocking me? Any ideas
would be much appreciated. Also, nobody connects to this machine but
me.

Thanks,
Greg

I would not think it would the cluster service account since you started
SQL Server at a command prompt. It could be another application. If you
have SQL Server Agent autostarting when SQL Server starts it could be SQL
Server Agent. Verify that it is not running.

Rand
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

There aren't any other apps that connect to this sql server other than
the cluster and sql services (client tools occasionally, but have this
shut down). I set sql agent and microsoft search to do not start in
cluster administrator and also disabled them in services to try to
make sure they don't grab the connection. Then I took sql server
offline, started sql server in single user mode from the cmd prompt
successfully, left cmd prompt open, tried to connect to query analyzer
to run the restore statement and it still says that it can't connect
because it is in single user mode and only one admin can be connected.
Not sure what is grabbing the connection. Also tried leaving query
analyzer open before stopping the sql server service and starting in
single user mode in hope that it would somehow grab the connection
with my login first, but no luck, when I try to execute restore
command it gives the same message.

I notice that after I start sql server in single user mode that
cluster administrator changes the sql resources to online pending.
Not sure if that is normal.

Thanks,
Greg

On Wed, 03 Dec 2003 14:43:47 GMT, rboyd (AT) onlinemicrosoft (DOT) com (Rand Boyd
[MS]) wrote:

I had something similar happen. what I did to confirm
there is no outside source connecting to the system was
take it off the network then install the Service pack..
In my case there was another external application grabbing
the single connection that I wasn't aware of.
Hope this helps..
BC