Severity Levels 0 through 18

Error messages with severity levels 0 and 10 are informational. Error messages with severity levels 11 through 16 are generated by user errors and can be corrected by the user. Severity levels 17 and 18 are generated by resource or system errors; the user's session is not interrupted.

Using sp_addmessage, user-defined messages with severities 1 through 25 can be added to sysmessages. Only the SA can add messages with severities 19 through 25.

Error messages with severity levels 17 and higher should be reported to the SA.

Severity Level 0 and 10: Status Information (Reported as Level 0)

These messages are not errors; they provide additional information after certain statements have executed.

Severity Levels 11 through 16

These messages indicate errors that can be corrected by the user.

Severity Level 17: Insufficient Resources

These messages indicate that the statement has caused SQL Server to run out of resources (such as locks or disk space for the database) or to exceed some limit set by the SA.

These system limits include the number of databases that can be open at the same time and the number of connections allowed to SQL Server. Limits are stored in the sysconfigures table in the master database and can be changed with the sp_configure system stored procedure. (For details about using sp_configure, see the Microsoft SQL Server Transact-SQL Reference)

Level 17 messages that indicate you have run out of space can usually be corrected by the database owner. Other level 17 messages are best addressed by the SA.

Severity Level 18: Nonfatal Internal Error Detected

These messages indicate that there is some type of internal software problem, but the statement finishes, and the connection to SQL Server is maintained. For example, a level 18 message occurs when SQL Server detects that a decision about the access path for a particular query has been made without a valid reason.

The SA should be informed every time a level 18 message occurs.