Microsoft KB Archive/75546

= PRB: Sp_helpdevice Shows Multiple Devices with Device_number 0 =

Article ID: 75546

Article Last Modified on 2/14/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 4.21a Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q75546



SYMPTOMS
In the section for adding database devices ( page 36 for version 4.2), the &quot;Microsoft SQL Server System Administrator's Guide&quot; states that &quot;VDEVNO&quot; must be unique among database devices and dump devices; running sp_helpdevice displays multiple devices with the &quot;device_number&quot; equal to 0 (zero) (which is reserved for the master device).



CAUSE
Unlike DISK INIT, which is used to create database devices, dump devices are created with the stored procedure sp_addumpdevice, which does NOT require a device number as a parameter. The stored procedure sp_helpdevice calculates the &quot;device_number&quot; by dividing the &quot;low&quot; column in sysdevices by 16777216. Because &quot;low&quot; (the starting virtual page number) for dump devices is always 0 (zero), this computation will yield 0 (zero).

For this reason, the master database device and all dump devices have a device_number equal to 0 (zero) when running sp_helpdevice.

Additional query words: Windows NT

Keywords: kbprogramming KB75546

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