It takes a long time for the SQL Server service to start on a Windows Server 2003-based computer

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Symptoms

Consider the following scenario. You are running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2), or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer. You try to start the SQL Server service. In this scenario, it takes a long time for the service to start. Typically, this time may be 10 to 15 minutes or more depending on the configuration of the server. Additionally, the following error messages may be written to the SQL Server error log:

Date 21:09:37.10 server Server Process ID is 3724.
Date 21:09:37.10 server Logging SQL Server messages in file 'h:\MSSQL\log\ERRORLOG'.
Date 21:09:37.12 server SQL Server is starting at priority class 'normal'(12 CPUs detected).
Date 21:09:37.15 server Address Windowing Extensions enabled.
Date 21:18:15.25 server SQL Server configured for thread mode processing.
Date 21:18:15.26 server Using dynamic lock allocation. [2500] Lock Blocks, [5000] Lock Owner Blocks.
Date 21:18:15.45 server Attempting to initialize Distributed Transaction Coordinator.
Date 21:18:15.70 server Failed to obtain TransactionDispenserInterface: Result Code = 0x8004d01b
Date 21:18:15.70 spid3 Starting up database 'master'.

Note You do not experience this behavior in SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4).

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Cause

This issue occurs because the SQL Server service is an Address Windowing Extensions (AWE)-enabled SQL Server service.

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Resolution

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2000. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

290211 How to obtain the latest SQL Server 2000 service pack

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More information

In the SQL Server error log, note the time that occurs in initialization routines after you receive the "Address Windowing Extensions enabled" error message. After the message is written to the SQL Server error log, all the AWE memory that you have configured is initialized. You configure this AWE memory by setting the sp_configure max server memory option. On a Windows Server 2003-based computer, this process may take a long time, depending on the specific amount of memory that you configure to be initialized. This issue only occurs if the configured sp_configure max server memory value is an exact power of 2. For example, a server that has an sp_configure max server memory value value of 8,191 MB or 8,193 MB initializes very quickly. However, a server that has an sp_configure max server memory value of 8,192 MB takes several minutes to initialize.

If you experience this issue in SQL Server 2000 SP3 or in an earlier service pack of SQL Server 2000, you can configure the amount of memory to be several megabytes more or less than the number that is an exact power of 2. This change will not create performance problems.

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