Top Approaches to Fix Metadata Corruption in SQL Server Database

Database corruption is one of the terrible things in the DBA’s life. Therefore, the chances of corruption in the database are also increasing. However, most of the time, SQL database views, procedures, functions, stored procedure get damaged due to some malicious attack, bugs, hardware failure, accidental shutdown, etc. These problems will lead the metadata corruption in SQL Server Database.

In this write-up, we will try to resolve SQL Server metadata corruption. First, let’s know what metadata is and why corruption occurs in it.

What is Metadata & Its Corruption?

Basically, metadata means the data about data. You can get all the information of SQL Server database by running the sys.databases. You can execute the following query:

Select * from sys.databases;

There are numbers of function in the SQL Server that will return the information about the SQL database and its database objects, which are known as Metadata functions. Some of the functions are given below:

INDEX_COL, OBJECT_ID, OBJECT_NAME, COL_NAME, OBJECT_NAME etc.

When this metadata gets damaged intentionally or even by accident, users declare having SQL metadata corruption which needs to be fixed.

Know How Metadata Corruption in SQL Server Database Occurs?

If there is the malicious attack, hardware failure, sudden shutdown, etc. happen in the SQL database, the views, functions, stored procedure may get damaged. In this case, there is a chance to be metadata corruption. Moreover, this problem will also occur when you update index statistics with INCREMENTAL=ON. In this situation, you will get error message 211 in SQL and it is generic metadata corruption.

Other causes for SQL Metadata Corruption Are:

• Memory Malfunctioning 
• Operating System Issues
• Incomplete transactions
• Storage Media Issues
• Sudden Shutdowns
• Hardware Failures
• SQL Cyber Attacks
• Software Issues

Detect Metadata Corruption in Database

You can check the corruption in metadata with the help of DBCC CHECKDB command. It will check the consistency of the database by following these:

Run DBCC CHECKDB command
DBCC CHECKDB (corrupt) WITH NO_INFOMSGS;
GO

DBCC CHECKDB command checks the consistency of the SQL database and helps you to prevent the database from the high-level corruption. Because it will check both the physical and logical integrity of the database. If any error found, then it will show as below:

Msg 0, Level 20, State 0, Line 0

After the database consistency check, run the DBCC CHECKCATALOG command to detect the metadata corruption. It will check the catalog consistency for the particular SQL server database. Then, you will get a warning message that displays the occurrence of corruption in the metadata.

DBCC CHECKCATALOG (corrupt) WITH NO_INFOMSGS;
GO

How to Resolve Metadata Corruption in SQL Server Database?

If you want to fix the corruption in SQL metadata, you can recover it by using BACKUP and RESTORE command. But, before using this command, you need to have a backup of your corrupted database. However, it may possible that along with the metadata, database backup file is also corrupted. In this case, you have two options; either you can export your entire corrupted database to the new one or fix the system table manually.

To manually repair metadata corruption from SQL Server Database, you need to alter the ‘hidden’ system tables. For this:

• At first, shut down the server.
• Then, go to the Advanced Tab in Configuration Manager.
• After that, add ‘-m;’ to the start of the startup parameter string.
• Again, start the SQL server.
• Connect using DAC.

A Smart & Professional Technique to Recover Metadata Corruption

You can recover the corruption in SQL metadata manually, but it is not a reliable solution. To fix the SQL database in the safe and quick way, you should use SQL Database Recovery Tool. This utility can recover the database when both the backup file as well as metadata is corrupted.

It will also recover the deleted database records from the SQL Server database. For this purpose, you need to add the corrupted .mdf file to the tool and it will repair metadata corruption from SQL Server Database. Moreover, you can also recover the functions, views, triggers, stored procedures, tables, etc.

Follow the Four Simple Steps as Shown:

Step-1. Begin with starting the Automated Tool & Hitting the Open button.

Step-2. Select the Quick or Advanced Scan mode to proceed further.

Step-3. Enter the Destination Location to get healthy metadata.

Step-4. Hit the Export button to finish.

Time to Wrap Up

In this blog, we have discussed what metadata corruption is and when are the possible reasons behind the corruption. Apart from this, we have also given a solution on how to deal with it. Generally, corruption in SQL metadata can be caused due to hardware failure, malware attack, virus, bugs etc.

The blog covers the manual as well as an automated solution to fix the metadata corruption in SQL Server Database. But, one easy and quick way is to repair damaged metadata by SQL Database Repair Software.

Frequently Asked Questions