I don't know the SA password so I restarted my SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition instance in Single-user mode with the hope of changing the SA password. Immediately afterwards I tried connecting with
sqlcmd -S serverName\ss2008
Msg 18461, Level 14, State 1, Server serverName\SS2008, Line1 Login failed for user 'serverName\Administrator'. Reason: Server is in single user mode. Only one administrator can connect at this time.
My attempts at changing the password right out yields
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>sqlcmd -U sa -z p@ssword Password: Msg 18470, Level 14, State 1, Server serverName, Line 1 Login failed for user 'sa'. Reason: The account is disabled.
Does -m really stand for zero-user mode, or is there something horribly awry with my server?
Your connection may be being taken immediately by some other service (e.g. SQL Agent, Reporting Services)
You can pass an optional additional client name parameter with the -m switch.
e.g. using
-m"sqlcmd"
Will only permit the single available connection to be taken by a program that identifies itself as the sqlcmd client program. See the docs for more about this.