Make sure you run DBCC UPDATEUSAGE first to correct any incorrect stats (pages etc) on your tables.

DBCC UPDATEUSAGE (YOUR DATABASE NAME)

References:

http://www.mitchelsellers.com/blogs/articletype/articleview/articleid/121/determing-sql-server-table-size.aspx

I got the following random error:

You receive a “The incoming tabular data stream (TDS) remote procedure call (RPC) protocol stream is incorrect” exception when using NVarchar parameters with Sqlclient

The Solution

Its a known bug with the .Net SqlClient Data Provider.   If you have a field in the database of type nvarchar(max) or greater than 4000 characters and if the user enters data into the field greater than 4000 characters via the .Net SqlClient Data Provider you will receive an exception.

To get around this, reduce the field size to less that 4000 characters or change your type to ntext or set the Sqlparamter.size property to -1 to allow the entire data to be saved.

References

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970519

/* Disable constraints and triggers (if any) */

exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL’
exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘ALTER TABLE ? DISABLE TRIGGER ALL’

/*Perform delete operation on all table for cleanup, or you can put specific delete <tablename> commands if you want to only do a subset of deletions

*/
exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘DELETE ?’

/*Enable Constraints & Triggers again*/
exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘ALTER TABLE ? CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL’
exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘ALTER TABLE ? ENABLE TRIGGER ALL’

/*Reset Identity on tables with identity column*/
exec sp_MSforeachtable ‘IF OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID(”?”), ”TableHasIdentity”) = 1 BEGIN DBCC CHECKIDENT (”?”,RESEED,0) END’

Solution: SELECT DATALENGTH(column) FROM table

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[split]
(
@del char(1),
@str varchar(max)
)
RETURNS @tResult TABLE
(
val varchar(max)
)
AS
BEGIN
declare @xml xml
set @xml = N’<root><r>’ + replace(@str,@del,’</r><r>’) + ‘</r></root>’

insert into @tResult(val)
select
r.value(‘.’,'varchar(max)’) as item
from @xml.nodes(‘//root/r’) as records(r)

RETURN
END

Create maintenance plan failed.

The specified ‘@subsystem’ is invalid (valid values are returned by sp_enum_sqlagent_subsystems). (Microsoft SQL Server, Error 14234)

Just install Integration Services (just a little job…) and reboot.

References:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909036/en-us

ID   Name

1   A

2  B

3  C

4 D

You can acheive this by using the ROW_NUMBER() rank function using SQL Server 2005/2008.   The following code will return the 3rd record.

create table #temp
(
ID int,
[Name] nvarchar(50)
)

insert into #temp values (1,’A')
insert into #temp values (2,’B')
insert into #temp values (3,’C')
insert into #temp values (4,’D')
insert into #temp values (5,’E')

select [Name] from #temp where ID in (select ID from
(select ID, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (order by ID asc) as [Row] from #temp) as subquery
where [Row] = 3)

drop table #temp

Result:

Name = C

Here is the sample code that I use for Rebuilding indexes and catalogs:

declare @databasename varchar(max)
declare @cat varchar(max)

DECLARE database_cursor CURSOR FOR
select name from master.sys.databases
where database_id > 4 –exclude system databases

OPEN database_cursor

FETCH NEXT FROM database_cursor
INTO @databasename

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN

BEGIN TRY
–Below line rebuilds indexes
exec (‘USE ‘ + @databasename + ‘ EXEC sp_MSforeachtable @command1 = “ALTER INDEX ALL ON ? REBUILD WITH (FILLFACTOR = 80, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = ON,
STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = ON);”‘)

exec (‘USE ‘ + @databasename + ‘ declare @cat varchar(max) select @cat = (select top 1 name from ‘ + @databasename + ‘.sys.fulltext_catalogs) if @cat is not null begin exec (”ALTER FULLTEXT CATALOG ” + @cat + ” REBUILD WITH    ACCENT_SENSITIVITY=OFF;”) end’)

END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
DECLARE @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000),
@ErrorSeverity INT,
@ErrorState INT

SET @ErrorMessage = ‘ databasename: ‘ + @databasename + ‘ ‘ + ERROR_MESSAGE();
SET @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY();
SET @ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();

–print @ErrorMessage
RAISERROR(@ErrorMessage,@ErrorSeverity,@ErrorState);

END CATCH

FETCH NEXT FROM database_cursor
INTO @databasename
END

CLOSE database_cursor
DEALLOCATE database_cursor

My Scenario

1) Took a snap shot of our production database server using NTBackup
2) Converted the image to run on a virtual server
3) Booted the server with a new server name and tried to start up the SQL Server Instance

At this point, I ran into a critical error:

“Error 3: the system cannot find the specified path.”

The Problem

After some investigation, I noticed that the paths for the MSSQL$Instance and SQLAgent$Instance Windows Services had the old (8.3) format.

i.e C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\MSSQL\binn\sqlservr.exe”

The Solution

I located the file path for both of these services in the registry and changed them to their fully qualified path.

e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSSQLSERVER
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$Instance\Binn\ sqlservr.exe

I rebooted the machine and started both services up with no problems.

This is one of those problems where you could spend hours trying to find out what the error means where in-fact such a simple solution is all that it takes!

References

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=386678&SiteID=1

browse_thread/thread/e2fbca63a9b7367c/ca63aff756a2cada?hl=en&lnk=st&q=mssql+cannot+find+specified+path#ca63aff756a2cada