SQL SERVER – FIX: SQL Service Does Not Start After Promoting the Machine as Domain Controller

One of my blog reader contacted me to check if I can help him via phone to fix a show-stopper issue with SQL Server. I offered him On Demand (55 minutes) and he readily accepted it. Let us learn in this blog post how to fix an error related to domain controller.

When we started the call, he informed that SQL Service on a machine is down. We joined GoToMeeting and I started checking logs. One thing which I learned with any issue is that we need to understand the history of the issue. While talking and asking more, here is what it came down to:

I just promoted my SQL server to a DC and now the SQL services won’t start due to an authentication error. It was SQL Server 2014. We looked at below article

You may encounter problems when installing SQL Server on a domain controller

I also searched further and found books online within this documentation

I mentioned below very clearly as a limitation.

• After SQL Server is installed on a computer, you cannot change the computer from a domain member to a domain controller. You must uninstall SQL Server before you change the host computer to a domain controller.
• After SQL Server is installed on a computer, you cannot change the computer from a domain controller to a domain member. You must uninstall SQL Server before you change the host computer to a domain member.

So, our issue was obvious.

WORKAROUND/SOLUTION

Reason of writing this blog is that I was able to find a workaround of the Issue. For my customer, the issue was resolved after configuring all the SQL Server related services (SQL Server, SQL integration services, SQL Reporting services, SQL Agent) to run with LOCALSYSTEM account.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)