Starting SQL Server Manually

You can start Microsoft® SQL Server™ manually using these methods.

Method	Description
SQL Server Enterprise Manager	Start, pause, continue, and stop a local or remote MSSQLServer or SQLServerAgent service in the same window in which you administer other servers and databases.
SQL Server Service Manager	Start, pause, continue, and stop a local or remote MSSQLServer installation or SQLServerAgent service.
Services application in Control Panel	Start, pause, continue, and stop the MSSQLServer or SQLServerAgent service on the local server.
Command prompt	Start MSSQLServer or SQLServerAgent from a command prompt by typing: net start mssqlserver or sqlservr, or net start SQLServerAgent.

Before you choose a specific startup method, consider the following issues:

If you start SQL Server as a Microsoft Windows NT® service, you can log off the Windows NT network without having to shut down SQL Server.
If you start SQL Server using sqlservr from a command prompt (independent of the Service Control Manager):
- All system messages appear in the window used to start SQL Server.
- You cannot pause, stop, or resume SQL Server as a service using SQL Server Enterprise Manager, SQL Server Service Manager, the Services application in Control Panel, or any net commands (for example, net start, net pause, net stop, and net continue).
- Before logging off from Windows NT, you must shut down SQL Server.
- If you start SQL Server from a command prompt, any command-prompt options that you type take precedence over the default command-prompt options written to the Windows NT Registry by SQL Server Setup.
- If you start SQL Server from a command prompt, SQL Server Service Manager and SQL Server Enterprise Manager show the service as stopped.

To start SQL Server