initerrlog: could not open error log file. Operating system error=3 … – How to Resolve It

Hi friends, this post, discusses about how you can resolve the following SQL Server-related error message: initerrlog: could not open error log file ”. Operating system error=3 (The system cannot find the path specified).

 

What does the above error message mean?

The above error message, as it describes, means that SQL Server cannot find the designated error log file. As you may know, SQL Server has an error log file into which it writes various events. If SQL Server cannot find that file during its startup, it won’t be able to start.

 

How to resolve the issue

In order to resolve the issue, you will need add the proper startup parameters for SQL Server, via the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

So, the first step, is to launch SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Then in “SQL Server Services”, you right-click on the SQL Server service and select “Properties”.

Right after that, you navigate to the “Startup Parameters” tab, and from there, you can check the existing parameters, as well as, you can add any parameters that are required.

For example, below you can see a screenshot of the startup parameters of a demo SQL Server instance:

 

The startup parameters for the above demo SQL Server instance are:

-dC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.SQL2K19\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf
-eC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.SQL2K19\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG
-lC:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.SQL2K19\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf

 

As you can see, the above startup parameters, define where the SQL Server Database Engine can find the data and log file of the “master” system database, as well as, where the error log file is located.

To this end, in a similar manner, if one of the above startup parameters is missing for the SQL Server instance, you can add it, along with specifying the correct path.

Hope this helps!

 

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