SQL Server Error 14258

Error number

14258

Severity

16 (user-correctable error)

State

Not documented by Microsoft (not reproduced here)

Product

Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine

Versions

SQL Server editions that include SQL Server Agent (2016 to 2025), Azure SQL Managed Instance

Category

SQL Server Agent

Last reviewed

24 October 2026

What it means

Error 14258 means a job or alert procedure in msdb was called while the SQL Server Agent service was still starting up, so msdb refused the change until Agent has finished starting.

While SQL Server Agent starts, it reads its jobs, schedules and alerts from msdb into memory. To keep that picture consistent, the msdb procedures that look up or change a job (sp_start_job, sp_update_job, sp_delete_job, sp_add_jobstep and others) and the alert procedures first ask whether Agent is starting (msdb.dbo.sp_is_sqlagent_starting). If it is, they raise 14258 and make no change.

The condition is normally short, so the message itself says to try again later. If it repeats for minutes, Agent is not finishing its start: it may be stuck or failing and restarting, and its own log tells you why. 14258 is different from error 22022, which means Agent is not running at all.

Common causes

• A script or deployment pipeline runs job procedures straight after the server or the Agent service was restarted, during the short startup window.
• A failover of a failover cluster instance or a server reboot: Agent starts after the Database Engine, and early jobs or scripts hit the window.
• SQL Server Agent takes a long time to start, for example with a very large job history or many jobs, alerts and schedules to load.
• Agent fails while starting and is restarted repeatedly, so it seems to be starting most of the time.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read metadata and dynamic management views. They do not change data, permissions or configuration, so they are safe to run first.

SELECT servicename, status_desc, startup_type_desc, last_startup_time, service_account
FROM sys.dm_server_services
WHERE servicename LIKE N'SQL Server Agent%';

SELECT session_id, program_name, login_time, status
FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions
WHERE program_name LIKE N'SQLAgent%'
ORDER BY login_time;

SELECT TOP (10) session_id, agent_start_date
FROM msdb.dbo.syssessions
ORDER BY agent_start_date DESC;

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

DECLARE @try int = 1, @rc int = 1;
WHILE @try <= 5 AND @rc <> 0
BEGIN
    EXEC @rc = msdb.dbo.sp_start_job @job_name = N'Nightly ETL';
    IF @rc <> 0 WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:30';
    SET @try += 1;
END;

Examples

Updating a job right after SQL Server Agent was restarted

Shown as documented by Microsoft (message text); not reproduced here because it needs SQL Server Agent to be starting. No state or header is shown because none was observed. The text is raised by msdb.dbo.sp_is_sqlagent_starting, which the job procedures call. The job name is an example.

EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_name = N'Nightly ETL', @enabled = 1;

Cannot perform this operation while SQL Server Agent is starting. Try again later.

How to prevent it

Schedule deployments and scripts that change Agent jobs away from restarts, and give post-restart automation an explicit wait for SQL Server Agent to be running. Keep job history within sensible limits so Agent starts quickly, and monitor the Agent log for failed starts so a restart loop is noticed early.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• Stored procedures and functions

Official documentation

• SQL Server Agent
• sys.dm_server_services (Transact-SQL)
• Database engine events and errors (14000 to 14999)

Last technically reviewed 24 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on SQL Server 2025 (17.0.1145.4). Message text checked against the engine's sys.messages catalogue.