Tips to resolve “Index 'INDEX_NAME' on table...” Error message

Indexes in MS SQL Server database are primarily used to enhance the database performance. These indexes add as a overhead to the database as a whole and are categorized in four major parts – Clustered, Non-Clustered, Composite, and Unique. Minor corruption in these indexes can result in inaccessibility of all the records saved in SQL Server components. To nullify the effect of index corruption and access all the records saved in the database, you will need to restore the data from an updated database backup. However, in case the database backup itself getting corrupted and not restoring the desired records, an advanced Repair SQL Database tool allows you recover the lost database components.

Consider a practical scenario, where you encounter the below error message when you attempt to view certain records saved in Employee table:

Index 'INDEX_NAME' on table 'OBJECT_NAME' is marked offline. Rebuild the index to bring it online.

Data saved in the Employee table could not be accessed due to occurrence of above error message. Additionally, the error message pops up every time you attempt to view the Employee table records.

Cause:

Fundamental reasons responsible for the occurrence of the above error message are discussed below:

Specified index is marked as offline
Index Corruption
Hardware Failure

Resolutions:

For complete troubleshooting of above error message and accessing the records of Employee table, you will need to follow the below steps:

In case of hardware failure, fix them by running hardware diagnostics
In case of index corruption issue, run the DBCC CHECKDB (without repair clause) command to determine the extent of corruption.
For complete repair, run the DBCC CHECKDB command using appropriate repair clause.

In most cases, the above resolutions prove successful in resolving your problem and accessing the records. However, if the resolutions fall short to resolve the database corruption, then you will need to use advanced SQL Database Repair tool. These SQL Database Recovery software employ powerful repairing procedures to successfully repair your corrupt MS SQL database. Easily understood by both technical and non-technical users, these applications ensure risk-free database repair.