I recently upgraded SQL 2014 SQL
Instance in a cluster to SQL 2016. After the upgrade, the SQL Agent fails to
come online and the Event Viewer shows the below error messages:
SQLServerAgent
could not be started (reason: Unable to connect to server
'ServerName\InstanceName'; SQLServerAgent cannot start).
The
description for Event ID 17052 from source MSSQLSERVER cannot be found. Either
the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or
the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the
local computer.
If
the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be
saved with the event.
The
following information was included with the event:
Severity:
16 Error:-1, OS: -1 [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server]SQL Server
Network Interfaces: Error Locating Server/Instance Specified [xFFFFFFFF].
The error message is related to the ODBC driver 13 that
is not compatible with SQL 2016. I had to upgrade that to ODBC 13.1 from the
url below. Once the upgrade is done, the SQL Agent service will come back
online.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/help/3185365/sql-server-2016-agent-fails-to-start-or-failed-to-retrieve-data-error-when-you-try-to-read-error-log-from-ssms-2016
https://support.microsoft.com/en-nz/help/3185365/sql-server-2016-agent-fails-to-start-or-failed-to-retrieve-data-error-when-you-try-to-read-error-log-from-ssms-2016
