How to Recover MS SQL Database from Suspect Mode?

Summary: You will come to know that, how an Administrator can Recover MS SQL database from Suspect Mode to Normal from various methods. The SQL Database can have one specific state at a given time as it runs in different modes such as Online, Offline, Restoring, Recovering, Recovery Pending, Suspect, and Emergency. Each of these modes depicts a state in which the database files reside currently and requires separate procedures to be handled. Let’s take the case of ‘Suspect Mode’ for instance.

Figure: Database in Suspect Mode

When connecting to the SQL Server database for instance, if you find a message indicating that the database is in the suspect mode, it means the server suspects the primary filegroup of the database to be damaged. When SQL database goes into suspect mode, it becomes inaccessible. Under such a situation, neither will you be able to connect to the database nor will you be able to recover it during the server startup. You’ll need to perform some alternative recovery actions to resolve the issue.

Primary Reasons why SQL database is marked as Suspect

When SQL Server starts up, it attempts to obtain an exclusive lock on the server’s device file. If the device file is being used by another process or if it is found missing, the SQL Server starts displaying the errors. Possible reasons behind such errors are:

1. The system failed to open the device where the data or the log file resides.
2. Cannot find the file specified during the creation or opening of the physical device.
3. SQL server crashed or restarted in the middle of a transaction thus corrupting the transactions log.
4. Cannot access data or log file while coming online, because of the installed antivirus.
5. The database server was shut down improperly.
6. Lack of Disk Space.
7. SQL cannot complete a rollback or roll forward operation.
8. Database files are being held by the operating system, third-party backup software, etc.

Steps to Fix the SQL Server Database Suspect Mode Error

Here are the steps to change ‘SQL database suspect mode to normal mode’ :

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect your database
2. Select the New Query option
3. Turn off the suspect flag on the database and set it to EMERGENCY

EXEC sp_resetstatus ‘db_name’;
ALTER DATABASE db_name SET EMERGENCY

4. Perform a consistency check on the master database

DBCC CHECKDB (‘database_name’)

5. Bring the database into the Single User mode and roll back the previous transactions
   

ALTER DATABASE database_name SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE

6. Take a complete backup of the database
7. Attempt the Database Repair allowing some data loss

DBCC CHECKDB (‘database_name’, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)

8. Bring the database into the Multi-User mode

ALTER DATABASE database_name SET MULTI_USER

9. Refresh the database server and verify the connectivity of database

Ideally, after these steps have been executed, users should be able to connect to the database smoothly. In the case of any data loss, you’ll have the database backup to restore from (step 4).

What if this solution doesn’t work?

If your server device file has turned severely corrupt(the reason for this error), the above-mentioned steps may fail to revive the database. In such a case, you can easily recover all data within your database file with the help of Stellar Repair for MS SQL

This remarkable software fixes All types of SQL database corruption and recovers inaccessible objects from MDF and NDF database files. The software is laced with advanced algorithms that allow it to carry out non-destructive database repair while preserving its integrity.

Features

1. It repairs corrupt MDF and NDF files
2. Able to recover tables, triggers, keys, indexes, stored procedures, defaults, rules, schema etc
3. Supports MS SQL 2017, 2016 and lower versions
4. It provides multiple saving options to save the repaired database and these are: MS SQL(.MDF), CSV, HTML, XLS

The software is trusted by Microsoft MVPs

In Summation

We went through the detail methods on how to Recover MS SQL Database from Suspect Mode. As we know that SQL Server database is one of the most widely used databases across the globe. As packed up with the impressive features and vast utilization, this database requires in-depth knowledge and expertise to be handled well. Many times though, cryptic errors create serious issues with the SQL database from which recovering might be crucial. This SQL Database Repair software is an ideal tool to recover MS SQL server database from suspect mode and has been globally recommended by the SQL MVPs and experts.