Pausing and Resuming SQL Server

When you pause an instance of Microsoft® SQL Server™, users who are connected to the server can finish tasks, but new connections are not allowed. For example, you can pause an instance of SQL Server for a few minutes and send a shutdown message to connected users before shutting it down. You can also resume a SQL Server service.

You can pause an instance of SQL Server before stopping the server. Pausing an instance of SQL Server prevents new users from logging in and gives you time to send a message to current users asking them to log out before you stop the server.

Note  You cannot pause an instance of SQL Server if it was started by running sqlservr. Only SQL Server services started as a Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 or Windows® 2000 service can be paused.

For more information about pausing and resuming an instance of SQL Server from the Services application in Control Panel, see the Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 documentation.

To pause and resume SQL Server