INF: How to Debug "Service State Indeterminate" in SEM
ID: Q139475
|
The information in this article applies to:
-
Microsoft SQL Server version 6.0
SUMMARY
After registering a SQL Server successfully to SQL Enterprise Manager
(SEM), you may not be able to control the SQL Server service using the
service control "stop light" under certain situations. If you click on the
"stop light" button on the toolbar, the "stop light" dialog box will return
the message "service state indeterminate." In this case, the server status
icon "stop light" will not light, and the SQL Executive icon will not
change color to reflect the status either. Also, you will not be able to
control the services such as starting and pausing the SQL Server from
within the SEM. This article discusses when and why this situation may
occur.
MORE INFORMATION
When registering a SQL Server, you are actually performing two tasks:
- Connecting to the SQL Server using whatever IPC (Inter-Process
Communication mechanism) that is configured as the default;
-and-
- Polling the status of the SQL Server service to which you are
connecting.
If number 1 succeeds, the registration is considered successful; if number
2 fails, the "service state indeterminate" message will appear, or the
"stop light" will not light.
Microsoft SQL Enterprise Manager (SEM) controls and monitors SQL Server and
SQL Executive status through the Windows NT service control APIs. When you
use the SEM "stop light" to start SQL Server, for example, the SEM will
call the Windows NT service control functions to control the SQL Server
service. If the SQL Server and SEM are on two separate computers, the
service control is carried out through Windows NT Remote Procedure Calls
(RPCs), which locate the SQL Server computer using the name you provide
when registering the SQL Server.
There are situations when this service control may not work:
- Running SEM under Windows 95. Although you can connect to SQL Server
from SEM running under Windows 95, you can not control (for example,
start, pause) the service remotely because Windows 95 does not support
Windows NT service control APIs.
- Registering SQL Server using a name different from the Windows NT
server name. If you define an alias using the Advanced option in SQL
Client Configuration Utility, you can connect to the SQL Server using
this alias, but service control will be unavailable because the Windows
NT service control will try to locate the server using the alias as
the server name, which does not exist of course. This is true even if
the SEM and SQL Server reside on the same computer.
One common scenario is that you are running both SQL Server 4.21 and
6.0 on the same machine. Because you can not use the same server name
to connect to both SQL Servers, one of them must be connected using
an alias which is different from the Windows NT server name. In this
case, the SQL Server that is registered using an alias will have the
service control disabled.
- Windows NT service control or RPC not available. If the Windows NT
service control is not available for some reason, such as permissions
problems or RPC not available, the service control from SEM will be
unavailable also. To verify whether you have any problems with the
Windows NT service control, you can use the Windows NT Server Manager
to connect to the SQL Server computer, and try to remotely start or stop
some services such as the SQL Server service. If this attempt fails, it
indicates you either do not have the permissions, or the Windows NT
service control is not functioning properly and you should contact your
primary Windows NT support provider for further help.
Additional query words:
traffic light green red inf icon
Keywords : kbsetup kbusage SSrvInst
Version : 4.21 6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :
|