Steps to Rebuild System Databases in SQL Server 2008

Introduction

The worst has happened! An unexpected shutdown of SQL Server 2008

database server has resulted in crashing of the SQL Server. I was unable to

connect to SQL Server Instance and when I checked the SQL Server error logs, I

could see the following entries “Restore the database from a full backup,

or repair the database”, “Cannot recover the master database”. Now

what do I do? I don’t have backups of SQL Server System databases!

How can I bring the server back online at the earliest? 

Do I need to uninstall and then reinstall the SQL Server 2008?

Today I realized how important it is to backup system databases across

environments.

Error Messages in SQL Server Error Logs

During redoing of a logged operation in database 'master', an error occurred at

log record ID (206:424:1). Typically, the specific failure is previously logged as

an error in the Windows Event Log service. Restore the database from a full

backup, or repair the database.

Cannot recover the master database. SQL Server is unable to run. Restore

master from a full backup, repair it, or rebuild it..

My Environment:

OperatingSystem:   Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition (64-bit)

SQL Server:   SQL Server 2008 SP1 (64-bit)

Since I don’t have the system databases backups, the only option left for me

was to rebuild the system databases in SQL Server 2008. So let’s go for it!

FOR REBUILD:

1. If you have SQL Server 2008 Installation media available then insert the same

into the disk drive and search for Setup.EXE file or else search for Setup.EXE file

which will be available locally on your server. The default location of Setup.EXE

file on your server will be C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\

Setup Bootstrap\Release.

2. Right click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator as shown

in the below snippet to open up command prompt with elevated administrative

privileges.

Important Note

The command prompt must be run under Administrator privileges to

successfully rebuild the system databases.

3. In the command prompt window you need to enter the below mentioned

command with appropriate values for each parameter and press enter to rebuild

the system databases as per the syntax which is mentioned in MSDN.

Setup /QUIET /ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE

/INSTANCENAME=InstanceName

/SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=accounts [/SAPWD=

StrongPassword][/SQLCOLLATION=CollationName] 

If you want to change the server level collation then specify collation value for

/SQLCOLLATION parameter. As /SQLCOLLATION is an optional parameter, if it is

not specified then the current server collation is used to rebuild the system

databases.

4. Once the setup has successfully completed rebuilding the system databases

it will return to command prompt and will mention the SQL Server Build Number

as shown in the snippet below. In case if there are any syntax related or

permission issues then the specific error message will be displayed within the

command prompt window. You need to fix those issues before you can complete

the activity.

5. You can view the overall summary from C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL

Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\Summary.txt