SQL Server “Denali” CTP1 Expired…

Today when I started using SQL Server “Denali” CTP1 Management Studio, I wasn’t able to connect to the SQL Server, When I checked the SQL Server Service it wasn’t running.

I opened Event Viewer and checked the System Logs

This error message wasn’t much helpful in identifying the issue, so I opened

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log folder and opened ERRORLOG file in NotePad++ to find out the error caused in the startup and found this error information

2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      Microsoft SQL Server "Denali" (CTP1) – 11.0.1103.9 (X64)
    Sep 24 2010 21:52:29
    Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
    Enterprise Evaluation Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor)

2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      (c) Microsoft Corporation.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      All rights reserved.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      Server process ID is 1360.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      System Manufacturer: ‘VMware, Inc.’, System Model: ‘VMware Virtual Platform’.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      Authentication mode is MIXED.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      Logging SQL Server messages in file ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG’.
2011-05-23 20:50:54.33 Server      Registry startup parameters:
     -d C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf
     -e C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG
     -l C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf
2011-05-23 20:50:54.69 Server      Error: 17051, Severity: 16, State: 1. (Params:). The error is printed in terse mode because there was error during formatting. Tracing, ETW, notifications etc are skipped.

I searched for this Error but couldn’t find anything useful to fix the issue

Then I went back to look for older ErrorLog from last week and found this

2011-05-12 22:31:20.77 Server      The evaluation period for your edition of SQL Server expires in 5 day(s).

I then checked “Application Logs” under Event Viewer and found this

Now I understood why the SQL Server service is not starting, but still couldn’t understand why this information is not logged in Today’ ErrorLog

I think it will be better to have separate Event Log for SQL Server so that we can easily view SQL Server related events.

Please post your feedback and comments !!!