How to gain exclusive access to SQL Server 2005 database to restore?

Question

Whenever I restore a backup of my database in SQL Server I am presented with the following error:

Msg 3101, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Exclusive access could not          


        

Answer 1

I find this vastly faster and generally better than taking offline. Do read about it in MSDN so you understand the caveats. If using aysnc statistics, you have to turn those off, as well.

-- set single user, terminate connections
ALTER DATABASE [target] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE
RESTORE ...
ALTER DATABASE [target] SET MULTI_USER

The "with rollback immediate" is the essential "termination" clause. Leaving it out waits forever. A nicer version of the above gives user transactions a few seconds to terminate.

ALTER DATABASE [target] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK AFTER 5

Offline is a good idea if you want to copy database files around, a scenario that can be handy in desktop editions of SQL. Too heavy for this scenario. If offline, this would be preferred. SQL is moving away from sp_dboption.

ALTER DATABASE [target] SET OFFLINE WITH ROLLBACK AFTER 5