Reading Excel through OPENROWSET failed: the OLE DB provider for linked server (null) returned message ‘Unspecified error’. Here is how I fixed it.
SQL SERVER – Initializing the FallBack Certificate Failed With Error Code: 1, State: 20, Error Number: 0
After a service account password change, SQL Server would not start: Initializing the FallBack certificate failed, error code 1. Here is the fix.
AlwaysOn Queries Stuck on HADR_AR_CRITICAL_SECTION_ENTRY Wait
AlwaysOn queries stuck on HADR_AR_CRITICAL_SECTION_ENTRY followed a short loss of cluster quorum at a client site. Every change to the availability group waited. Setting failover to manual and restarting both replicas cleared the wait.
SQL SERVER – Cluster Resource ‘AGName’ of type ‘SQL Server Availability Group’ in Clustered Role ‘AGName’ Failed
Configuring an availability group is easy; trouble starts when the cluster breaks. Here I fix a failed cluster resource of type SQL Server Availability Group.
SQL SERVER – Script level upgrade for database ‘master’ failed because upgrade step msdb110_upgrade.sql encountered error 926, state 1, severity 25
An upgrade failed: Script level upgrade for database ‘master’ failed because upgrade step msdb110_upgrade.sql encountered error 926. I explain the cause and the fix.
Collation Precedence: Which Collation Wins in a Comparison
Explain collation precedence with explicit and implicit labels, reproduce a conflicting join, and choose comparison rules.
SQL SERVER – Unable to Start Service SQLSERVERAGENT on Server (mscorlib)
After moving the SQLAgent.OUT path, a client saw: Unable to start service SQLSERVERAGENT on server (mscorlib). Here is one cause of this error and the fix.