Microsoft SQL Server Error Code 8981
SQL Server is highly used amongst users as an data storing application. But this application is equally difficult to execute. Several glitches can occur while running this application and this can prevent you from accessing the database. This blog will discuss about one of a random error i.e. SQL Server error 8981. This error is basically caused due to improper linking of pages because of corruptions in indexes or pointers. This means that database might be accessible but few of the pages of same database might not be accessible.
What This Error Signifies?
Object ID O_ID, index ID I_ID. The next pointer of P_ID1 refers to page P_ID2. Neither P_ID2 nor its parent was encountered. Possible bad chain linkage
Severity is 16 which mean that these errors are database engine errors and at some extent can be corrected at user level. Table error explains that the page (P_ID1) refers to the next page which is (P_ID2) in the page chain. But next page was not seen and also was not referenced by any primitive or parent page in B-tree. This probably has occurred because of damaged chain linkage which is in return throwing SQL error 8981.
Similar error is SQL error 8908 which is also caused because of damages in pointers of database. In this error the next page pointer of particular page say page 1st points to the next page i.e. 2nd page but previous page pointer of 2nd page points to 3rd page which should point back to 1st page. Both of these errors disturb the sequence and data management.
Database Id DB_ID, object Id O_ID, index Id I_ID. Chain linkage mismatch. P_ID1->next = P_ID2, but P_ID2->prev = P_ID3.
Steps to Tackle These SQL Errors
- Check for any hardware issue by running hardware diagnostics. Also check for Windows system along with the application logs if the error has caused because of any hardware failure. Resolve hardware issues to avoid any further SQL database issues.
- In case the problem still occurs and is seen in other databases as well, then try to switch hardware components. Make sure that the write caching is not enabled on disk controller.
- You can also try to reinstall the whole Operating System or change the hardware completely to avoid future problems.
- To assemble the database again you can also restore the database from updated backup of SQL Server.
- Execute DBCC CHECKDB without repair clause to judge level of corruption and then it will recommend repair clause which canbe chosen to overcome SQL Server error 8981 and 8908.
Conclusion
SQL Server error handling can be done very easily with DBCC CHECKDB command. It is capable to tackle the corruption issues. To avoid same corruption in future, you can also change the hardware components or check if the issue is connected with hardware failures. But if this is not enough, and SQL error 8981 and 8908 is not handled by inbuilt SQL checks. You can prefer professional help like SQL Server MDF recovery software which allows you to fix the error messages in just few clicks.
