SQL SERVER – Configure Stored Procedure to Run at Server Startup – Simple Tutorial

One of the most popular questions I received during my SQL Server Performance Tuning Practical Workshop is how users can run sets of procedure when their SQL Server starts automatically.  Today, let us see a simple tutorial to run stored procedure at server startup.

Step 1: Enable Configuration

Change the server configuration to enable scan for startup processes in SQL Server. This option is available via SQL Server Management Studio as well, but we will see today how doing this via T-SQL only.

--Enable Scan for Startup Proc
EXEC sys.sp_configure N'scan for startup procs', N'1'
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
GO

Step 2: Demo Setup

We will first create a sample stored procedure which we want to run during startup and along with it, we will create a sample table where we will insert the data.

-- Create a sample table
CREATE TABLE ServerLog (ID INT IDENTITY(1,1), LogTime DATETIME)
GO
-- Creat a Procedure
CREATE PROCEDURE StartTest
AS
INSERT INTO ServerLog
SELECT GETDATE()
GO

Step 3: Configure SP to Run at Startup

In the following option to let us configure the stored procedure to run at startup.

-- Configure SP To run at Startup
USE master
GO
EXEC SP_PROCOPTION StartTest, 'STARTUP', 'ON'
GO

Step 4: Test Test Test

Now we will test if our Stored Procedure runs at startup or not. For the same, let us restart our server multiple times.

Step 5: Results – Success

Now we will retrieve data from our test table.

-- Test the Data in ServerLog Table
SELECT *
FROM ServerLog
GO

You can see in our result set that every time SQL Server is restarted it is creating entries in the table.

Well, in this example we have very simple procedure, but now you can see the power of this feature and run any set of server startup processes when your SQL Server starts.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)

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