SQL Server – Recover Cluster Instance with Bad tempdb Path

recoverysql serversql-server-2016tempdb

Today I have changed the tempdb's file locations using the ALTER DATABASE MODIFY command and I have accidentaly set it to use the root of the volume. The SQL Server service failed to restart and came up with Access denied errors in eventlog. It is a 2016 Sp1 failover cluster.
I tried to workaround this using

NET START MSSQL$INST1 /f /T3608

but it does not work.

What can I do about this? How can I restart the service to get able to re-define the setting to use a subfolder.

Best Answer

Pinal Dave wrote up a nice article on how to fix this. Have you tried this?

  1. NET START MSSQLSERVER /f
  2. Connect to SQL via SQLCMD
  3. Run ALTER DATABASE tempdb command
  4. Restart SQL Server

From the looks of things you are having an issue starting SQL that is a named instance. This Microsoft article explains how to use that command with a named instance:

Are you getting any errors in the error log for the service startup failure?