Best Way to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server Database

Generally, SQL database faces many technical issues and are trickier to manage. One such example of an error statement in SQL server is “Recovering pending state in SQL server”. The post deals with the best possible solutions on how to fix recovery pending state in SQL server database.

States of SQL Server Databases

If a single or multiple core files cannot be accessed in SQL server, it means that the SQL server database is corrupted. As per the measure of damage in the database, there are different states of SQL database. Some of them are explained below:

Online: If a single file is damaged and cannot be accessed, the database will remain available and online.

Suspect: In case, the transaction log file is damaged and it is creating obstructions on recovery or preventing transaction rollback from completion, it will result in failure of SQL database.

Recovery Pending: This state usually occurs when the SQL server knows that recovery of the database is to be done, but something is creating hindrance before starting it. This state is different from the suspect state as it cannot be declared that database recovery will fail, but it has not started yet.

The state of a database can be known after executing the following query statement:

SELECT name, state_desc from sys.databases
GO

Reasons Behind Recovery Pending State in SQL Server

Once a reason is known, finding a solution becomes a lot easier. When SQL database requires recovery and it cannot be started, it is known as pending state. This situation arises when:

• The database is not cleanly shut down. In other words, one or more unfulfilled transaction is active at that time and the transaction log file has been deleted.
• Users attempted to transfer the transaction log files to a new drive to solve performance issues. But, this may leads to corruption of log files.
• Due to inadequate memory space or disk storage, database recovery cannot be started.

Workaround to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server

There are 2 different manual methods to initiate SQL database recovery, which is marked in the recovery pending state. Both the solutions are described below.

Solution 1: Mark SQL Database in Emergency Mode and Start Forceful Repair

Follow these steps to resolve SQL server database issue:

1. Execute these queries to fix SQL server database in recovery pending state:

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] SET EMERGENCY;
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set single_user
GO
DBCC CHECKDB ([DBName], REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS) WITH ALL_ERRORMSGS;
GO
ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set multi_user
GO

2. EMERGENCY mode marks the SQL database as READ_ONLY, deactivates logging, and gives the permission to system admin only
3. This method is capable of resolving any technical issue and bringing the database back to the accessible state. The database will automatically come out of the EMERGENCY mode.

Solution 2: Mark SQL Database in Emergency Mode, Disconnect the Main Database and Attach it Again

Execute these commands to fix recovery pending state in SQL server:

ALTER DATABASE [DBName] SET EMERGENCY;
ALTER DATABASE [DBName] set multi_user
EXEC sp_detach_db ‘[DBName]’
EXEC sp_attach_single_file_db @DBName = ‘[DBName]’, @physname = N'[mdf path]’

These query statements will help the server to get corruption-free log and create a new one automatically.

Warning: Before performing any manual solution on the SQL server database, make sure that the proper backups of the data are created. In case, any error occurs, the data should still be available. Also, the manual approach is to be performed only when a user has a deep technical knowledge on the topic. If a user is unsure and the steps are not clear, another approach is explained in the next section.

Alternative Solution to Fix Recovery Pending State in SQL Server Database

No doubt, the manual solution to repair SQL server database is an effective technique, but it has to be performed with utmost care. Additionally, there are other disadvantages of the method too. So, it is recommended to use an automated tool like SQL Database Repair Software. According to the technical experts, it is the professional method to repair recovery pending state in SQL server 2012.

Final Words

A SQL server database is a lot more complex and difficult to handle. There are many glitches which occur in SQL database, and they have to be resolved as soon as possible. One such problem is a recovery pending state in SQL server. The multiple manual solutions have been described in the post to fix recovery pending state in SQL server database. Moreover, a third-party tool is also introduced to resolve the problem in a hassle-free manner.