SQL Server Agent fails after installing SQL Server 2019 CU2

Question

After installing CU2 our SQL server agent randomly stops working. If you go to check on the status of the agent by opening Job Activity Monitor, it comes up blank for a while then throws an error:

Failed to retrieve data for this request. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Sdk.Sfc)

For help, click: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&LinkId=20476

------------------------------ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)

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A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 0)

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&ProdVer=15.00.4013&EvtSrc=MSSQLServer&EvtID=0&LinkId=20476

Any clue what could be causing this?

Answer 1

Thank you for reporting this. There is a feedback item in https://feedback.azure.com/forums/908035-sql-server/suggestions/39754837-ssms-18-4-sqlserver-2019-cu2-object-explorer-fails. All updates will be provided there as we investigate.

FYI, the bug introduced in CU2 with xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs is now understood and a fix will ship in CU3. Meanwhile, if you're hitting this issue, revert back to CU1. We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.

The Cumulative Update 2 for SQL Server 2019 article now has the following warning:

Known issue

There is a known issue with SQL Server Agent in SQL Server 2019 CU2. This will be fixed in the next CU release (SQL Server 2019 CU3).

If you are using SQL Server 2019 SQL Server Agent, it is advised to skip this CU upgrade, and wait for SQL Server 2019 CU3. If you have already applied SQL Server 2019 CU2 and are experiencing issues with SQL Server Agent, please revert to SQL Server 2019 CU1.

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Fixed in CU3

FIX: Error occurs when you interact with SQL Server Agent in SQL Server 2019

Answer 2

I had this error on our test server. We have a SQL server agent job that restores some databases and then builds a transactional replication publication and subscription on the server. It gets stuck after successfully creating the snapshot files. The job had frozen and the SQL server agent activity monitor was unresponsive returning - retriving snapshot "Severe error" Running the job steps manually in SSMS works fine and after the job froze restarting SQL server agent service allowed me to access the SQL server agent activity monitor again and the replication then built successfully. So I have removed the CU2.

Answer 3

We had the same issue. I replaced just the SQLAgent.exe with the older version that I found in C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$ the file was called MPT_SQLAGENT_EXE_64 and renamed it to SQLAgent.exe. I had also checked the .dlls related to SQLAgent but they had not been updated.