SQL SERVER – SQL Server Agent Missing in SQL Server Configuration Manager

If you search on the internet, you will find various combinations of missing services. One of the common situations is to have ALL SQL related services missing from SQL Server Configuration Manager. In this blog, we would look into a special situation where ONLY SQL Server Agent is missing in SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Long ago, I wrote a blog where the SQL Server Agent node is missing from SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL SERVER – SQL Server Agent Missing in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

The situation which I am going to write about can be explained by pictures in a better way.

Services Control Manager (Services.msc) shows all SQL related services.

But SQL Server Configuration Manager shows all except SQL Server Agent.

One of the key points to note here is that SQL Server Agent is not running. When we tried starting SQL Agent Service from Services.msc, it failed. I already wrote a blog to fix the error SQL SERVER – Event ID 7000 – The System Cannot Find The File Specified.

WORKAROUND/SOLUTION – Agent Missing

It looks like SQL Server Configuration Manager is smart to look at the path and not to show the service which is having the wrong path. The fun part is that I was able to make the configuration manager empty was putting incorrect value for the path. I got rid of SQL Server by modifying ImagePath in below key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSSQLSERVER

Earlier screenshot had 6 services and now it became 5.

The moral of the story is that first check if we are able to start the service from services.msc. If yes, then you need to look for other blogs/help. But if you can’t then fix that first and check.

Let me know your feedback about this blog post as I am very much curious to know about it. Just leave a comment.

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