Error 8632: Internal Error, Expression Services Limit Reached

Error 8632 is the internal error that says an expression services limit has been reached. I met it while helping a client with a Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check. A few of their stored procedures failed with it.

The Error

Internal error: An expression services limit has been reached. Please look for potentially complex expressions in your query, and try to simplify them.

What the Client Saw

After a SQL Server upgrade, the client had a query performance regression. A few queries and stored procedures weren’t performing well. During the investigation, we found a few queries that gave the error above.

One of the first reactions was to restart SQL Server. That wasn’t possible, because the business needed continuity. I also don’t see a point in a restart unless there are major configuration changes or patch upgrades.

Why It Happens

I made a copy of each stored procedure, and every copy worked fine. That told me the error was not tied to the query text. It was tied to the cached stored procedures.

The Fix

The solution was simple. We opened each stored procedure and recreated it with the same name, and everything worked. Some procedures had other stored procedures inside them. We recreated or recompiled the nested ones too, and the error went away.

This command recompiles a stored procedure:

EXEC sp_recompile N'SPName';
GO

How to Prevent It

After an upgrade, try a recompile before you reach for a restart. If you’ve faced this error, please tell me in the comments how you fixed it.

Error 8632 is not a query to rewrite, it is a cached procedure to refresh.

Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.