Microsoft KB Archive/44899

INF: Pages Counted by DBCC Differs from dpages ID Number: Q44899

1.00 1.10 1.11 4.20 OS/2

Summary:

SYMPTOMS DBCC CHECKDB produces the following message:

Checking 8 The total number of data pages in this table is 2. Number of data pages counted by DBCC differs from count in Sysindexes row. Please UPDATE 'dpages' in the Sysindexes row for this object to equal the count just printed. CAUSE Object ID 8 is the system table SYSLOGS, which is a very special table.

It is not unusual for DBCC to find a discrepancy between the actual page count and the count reflected in sysindexes dpages for the SYSLOGS table. This discrepancy occurs because page count in sysindexes (dpages) is not updated every time something is logged; that would cause too much overhead. Instead, the changes are saved until a CHECKPOINT is executed.

RESOLUTION Whether or not the object ID is 8, CHECKPOINT the database and rerun DBCC CHECKDB before any updates are performed on the database.

If the discrepancy still exists, update dpages in SYSINDEXES, as described in the “SQL Server System Administrator’s Guide.” Note: under SQL Server version 4.2, dpage discrepancies are automatically corrected by the system when CHECKDB or CHECKTABLE is run.

More Information:

The discrepancy will not cause problems because the value in sysindexes is used only for reporting space allocation, not for enforcing it. Also, the occasionally erroneous value in sysindexes will never affect the choice of access strategy because queries are never run on syslogs.

There is a situation that seems to produce a discrepancy between the actual page count and the sysindexes page count that is NOT resolved by doing a checkpoint. If a database that does not have its transaction log on a separate database device is ever allowed to have the log fill up (requiring it to be purged with DUMP TRANSACTION WITH NO_LOG), then sysindexes seems to get permanently out of sync with the actual page count.