How to delay SQL Server startup

Question

When we boot SQL Server, SAN drives might not be availiable yet. Is there a way to delay SQL Server start by 1 minute? Right now we have to restart SQL Server after we boot the server.

Answer 1

We talked about a similar issue before here and here and what worked in that case was setting the SQL Server to be dependent on the disk drivers. You'll want to test this to make sure this works in your setup but it should do the trick.

Answer 2

Try these:

• Set a service dependency on some SAN/HBA service (can be done in services.msc)
• Change the service to "Automatic (Delayed start)" if a later OS
• Set the service to "Manual" and trigger with a job (as per Richard's answer)

Answer 3

Two things come to mind.

There is a version of Windows that allows delayed starts. However, I suspect that even if you set that up, it won't be long enough. (Also, I suspect that you probably don't have that version of windows, if you're using SAN.)

One solution (although a bit hacky) would be to create a batch script that delayed for 60 seconds and then called the service to start it up:

REM delay 60 seconds
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 60  
net start mssqlserver

Add that to your Startup folder in your Program Files and it should work.