12.17. Finding Service Startup Failures

You can use two utilities to view the state and configuration of SQL Server services—the Windows Services console and SQL Server Configuration Manager.

As we discussed in Chapter 11, every instance has a service master key at the root of the encryption hierarchy. The service master key is encrypted using the SQL Server service account and service account password. The Windows Services console does not contain the code necessary to encrypt a service master key; therefore, you should never use the Windows Services console to change the service account or service account password.