Question

I need a simple batch command which will wait until specified service (actually, SQL Server) is finished starting. See, the bat file runs some non-service executables which attemp to connect to the SQL server on start. And they fail.

I tried to help (” /?” key) some Windows Shell commands but they do not seem to respond with an action I need.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this command doesn’t exist. The sc can start and stop a service and it can query the status of a service (see this answer). But even when you query, you will only get “Service is running”; there is no way to tell how far the service got in its startup.

There are two workarounds:

1. Sleep for a while
2. Run a simple SQL command in a loop

The first approach will help but it won’t completely solve the problem; when the server is under load, the startup can take longer.

For the second approach, use a loop which times out (pseudocode):

1. Set counter to X
2. Try to connect
3. If connect succeeded, exit with success
4. Decrement counter
5. If counter <= 0 -> ERROR
6. Sleep 1s
7. Go to step 2

For additional safety, you could add a sc query in there to make sure the service didn’t fail.