About 6 months ago we decided to look at what SQL Server engine error messages are most commonly generating support cases to Microsoft. The end goal was to update the documentation for those error messages to allow our customers to find answers for themselves before they have to call Microsoft for technical assistance.

The task, as we suspected from previous experience, was not easy because we had to mine cases for error numbers and a relatively small number of support cases get reported with error messages when they are opened. Still, we were able to find the trends even from the small percentages because were looking for the top 20 or so most common errors, based on case count, and we needed relative information – which error is reported more than another.

As a result, over the past 6 months or so we have been updating and creating SQL Server engine errors (MSSQLSERVER_XXXX) or for some of them validated the content was relevant. Many of these errors did not have any documentation at all and some were updated with more detailed instructions and insights. With over 14,000 error messages in SQL Server engine alone, the realistic approach is to focus on documenting the common ones.

Here is the list of errors that we created or updated to help with your troubleshooting efforts and, we hope, complete resolution:

There are multiple contributors to this project, but special thanks go to Siresh Peesa for mining the data and discovering the trends, Ramu Konidena a Content Project Manager for driving the project and contribution to the content, Suresh Kandoth for providing guidance and ideas, and James Ferebee for contribution to the of the content.

You can help!

We are committed to creating documentation that helps us all. Please consider contributing to these efforts by doing the following:

• Report full error messages when creating support cases with Microsoft.
• Comment blogs posts like this one!

Stay tuned to this channel for additional updates on our progress in this space!

Thank you