SQL Server Q&A

Symptoms
When you start Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, you may receive the following error message:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Input string was not in a correct format.If you click Detail in the dialog box, the following error message text appears at the top of the details:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format.
at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal)
at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.ConnectionDlg.LoginControl.InitFromLastUsedServerType()
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.ConnectionDlg.ConnectionDialog.DoOneTimeInitialization()
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.ConnectionDlg.ConnectionDialog.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ShellConnectionDialog.OnVisibleChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
Resolution
This problem occurs if the value of the following registry key is not empty or is set to an invalid value:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International\sPositiveSign

Symptoms
When you install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on a computer that is running the original release version of Microsoft Windows XP, you receive the following error message:

This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect.
Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.Additionally, the following event is logged in the System log:
Source: SideBySide
Event ID: 59
Description:
Resolve Partial Assembly failed for Microsoft.VC80.CRT. Reference error message: The system cannot find the file specified.
Resolution
This problem occurs because SQL Server 2005 requires the GetSystemTimes function. The GetSystemTimes function is included in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and inlater Windows XP service packs.

Symptoms
Consider the following scenarios.
Scenario 1You create a common language runtime (CLR) routine that references a Microsoft .NET Framework assembly. The .NET Framework assembly is not documented in Knowledge Base article 922672. Then, you install the .NET Framework 3.5 or a .NET Framework 2.0-based hotfix.
Scenario 2You create an assembly, and then you register the assembly in a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database. Then, you install a different version of the assembly in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC).
When you execute the CLR routine or use the assembly from either of these scenarios in SQL Server 2005, you receive an error message that resembles the following:

Server: Msg 6522, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user defined routine or aggregate ‘getsid’:
System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly ‘System.DirectoryServices, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’ or one of its dependencies. Assembly in host store has a different signature than assembly in GAC. (Exception from HRESULT: 0×80131050)
System.IO.FileLoadException:
Resolution
When the CLR loads an assembly, the CLR verifies that the same assembly is in the GAC. If the same assembly is in the GAC, the CLR verifies that the Module Version IDs (MVIDs) of these assemblies match. If the MVIDs of these assemblies do not match, you receive the error message that the “Symptoms” section mentions.
When an assembly is recompiled, the MVID of the assembly changes. Therefore, if you update the .NET Framework, the .NET Framework assemblies have different MVIDs because those assemblies are recompiled. Additionally, if you update your own assembly, the assembly is recompiled. Therefore, the assembly also has a different MVID.

Symptoms
A standalone computer (without any network protocols installed) fails to connect locally to the Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Desktop Edition. If you attempt to connect by using either Query Analyzer or SQL Enterprise Manager, the following error message occurs:

Unable to connect to server \\SRVNAME:
Server: Msg 17, Level 16, State 1
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Shared Memory]SQL Server does not exist or access denied. Attempting to connect by using ODBCPING causes this error message to occur:

COULD NOT CONNECT TO SQL SERVER
SQLState: 08001 Native Error: 17
Info. Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Shared Memory]SQL
Server does not exist or access denied.
SQLState: 01000 Native Error: 53
Info. Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Shared
Memory]ConnectionOpen(Connect()). ISQL can still connect, when you specify the SQL Server machine name. ISQL makes a DB Library connection and uses shared memory.
Resolution
The inability to connect locally, by using the machine name, occurs after Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.6 has been applied to the desktop computer and the connection attempts to make the connection by using the Shared Memory protocol. Shared Memory is used when you specify the machine name to connect and no network protocols are installed on the desktop computer.

Symptoms
In Microsoft SQL Server 2008, the syspolicy_purge_history SQL Server Agent job may fail when you run the syspolicy_purge_history job on a clustered instance. You may receive an error message that resembles the following in the history log file for the syspolicy_purge_history job:

Date datetime
Log Job History (syspolicy_purge_history)
Step ID 3
Server SQLVirtualName\instancename
Job Name syspolicy_purge_history
Step Name Erase Phantom System Health Records.
Duration 00:00:33
Sql Severity 0
Sql Message ID 0
Operator Emailed
Operator Net sent
Operator Paged
Retries Attempted 0
Message
Executed as user: user. The job script encountered the following errors. These errors did not stop the script: A job step received an error at line 1 in a PowerShell script. The corresponding line is ‘(Get-Item SQLSERVER:\SQLPolicy\SQLVirtualName\instancename).EraseSystemHealthPhantomRecords()’.
Correct the script and reschedule the job. The error information returned by PowerShell is: ‘SQL Server PowerShell provider error: Could not connect to ‘SQLVirtualName\instancename’. [Failed to connect to server SQLVirtualName\instancename. --> An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.
When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)] Failed to connect to server SQLVirtualName\instancename. An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server) ‘
A job step received an error at line 1 in a PowerShell script. The corresponding line is ‘(Get-Item SQLSERVER:\SQLPolicy\SQLVirtualName\instancename).EraseSystemHealthPhantomRecords()’. Correct the script and reschedule the job. The error information returned by PowerShell is: ‘Cannot find path ‘SQLSERVER:\SQLPolicy\SQLVirtualName\instancename’ because it does not exist. ‘ A job step received an error at line 1 in a PowerShell script. The corresponding line is ‘(Get-Item SQLSERVER:\SQLPolicy\SQLVirtualName\instancename).EraseSystemHealthPhantomRecords()’. Correct the script and reschedule the job. The error information returned by PowerShell is: ‘You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression. ‘. Process Exit Code -1. The step failed.
Resolution
This problem may occur if the syspolicy_purge_history job uses the computer node name instead of the virtual server name for the cluster instance.

Symptoms
Consider the following scenario. You install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services.You upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer, to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, or to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard by using the following command-line command:
setup.exe /action=editionupgrade /instancename=instance name /pid=appropriate edition product IDOr, you upgrade to SQL Server 2008 Developer, to SQL Server 2008 Enterprise, or to SQL Server 2008 Standard by using the Setup Graphical User Interface (GUI).You start the Service Control Manager.
Note To do this, click Start, click Run, and then type services.msc.You locate the SQL Server Agent service and then try to start the service.In this scenario, the SQL Server Agent service does not start successfully. Additionally, the following error message is recorded in the event log:

SQLServerAgent could not be started (reason: Error creating a new session)
Resolution
This issue occurs because in SQL Server 2008 Express and in SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services, the SQL Server Agent service is created but not enabled. This condition is by design.