SQL DBA Blog

Tag: Error Messages

  • “Changing the Primary Domain DNS Name of this Computer Failed” – Server 2008 R2

    “Changing the Primary Domain DNS Name of this Computer Failed” – Server 2008 R2

    Within an AWS account I have a Windows Server 2016 Domain Controller, and I’m trying to join a Windows Server 2008 R2 to my Whyte.net Domain.

    I get this error:

    Changing the Primary Domain DNS name of this computer to “” failed. The name will remain “whyte.net”.
    The error was:
    The specified server cannot perform the requested operation.

    I’ve run some domain checks which all appear to be successful. All traffic open between each server.

    Nothing of note shows in the Event Viewer…

    This isn’t something you should have to be doing, joining a now un-supported Windows Server to a domain. To help plan for this kind of change, have a look at Microsoft Docs – AD Functional Levels.

  • “Windows could not start the SQL Server”

    “Windows could not start the SQL Server”

    The “Windows could not start the SQL Server on 127.0.0.1” is a generic error message when the SQL Server service cannot start-up.

    Windows could not start the SQL Server

    Windows Event Viewer will give you the actual error, and from there you can troubleshoot the reason for failure.

    Windows Event Viewer Application Errors

    SQL Server 2019 evaluation period expired in this case. My mistake for not selecting the Developer Edition!

  • “Index was out of range” SQL Server Management Studio

    “Index was out of range” SQL Server Management Studio

    If you try to change the order of steps in an Agent Job within SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), you may encounter the error “Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: index (mscorlib)“.

    This error can occur even if you are using the latest version of SSMS. It’s unclear what the root cause of this issue is, but I have been able to resolve it for myself and some others by updating to the latest version of SSMS.

    Resolve “Index was out of range” SSMS Issue

    As mentioned above the resolution is to update to the latest SSMS version. For demo purposes, I’m going to show the actual error I was encountering here.

    I create a new SQL Agent Job with 3 job steps:

    SQL Agent Job Steps

    When I try move the job step 3 (import_second_table) run order from 3 to 2, the Index was out of range error prompts:

    SQL Agent Job Step Order Change
    Index Out of Range SQL Server Management Studio
    Index out of range Full Error

    Searching for this error online often led me to a lot of unrelated information about .NET development. If updating SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) has not resolved this issue for you, feel free to leave a comment and we can troubleshoot here.

  • “Content from the website listed below is being blocked.” Windows Server

    “Content from the website listed below is being blocked.” Windows Server

    The Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration is a feature that helps protect your computer from malicious websites and other online threats. When you open Internet Explorer on a Windows Server, you’ll likely be prompted with this message:

    Content from the website listed below is being blocked by the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

    Content from website listed below blocked

    Adding each website to trusted sites can be a frustrating process, so on new test VMs I quickly turn off IE Enhanced Security Configuration within Server Manager:

    IE Enhanced Security Configuration
    Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration

    This isn’t something you should change on a production server without thought but it is maybe a good thing to include on a VM template for a test environment.

    We can also disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration via the Internet Explorer browser app via the following these steps:

    – Open Internet Explorer and click on the “Tools” menu.
    – Select “Internet Options” from the menu.
    – In the “Internet Options” window, select the “Security” tab.
    – Under the “Security” tab, click on the “Internet” zone and then click on the “Custom Level” button.
    – In the “Security Settings” window, scroll down to the “Miscellaneous” section and look for the “Allow websites to open windows without address or status bars” setting.
    – Select the “Enable” option for this setting and then click on the “OK” button to save the changes.