SQLServer 2008 R2 (also SP1/SP2) on Windows 10 within Virtualbox does not start [closed]

Question

The results of an epic afternoon...

Installed SQLServer 2008 on Windows 10 within Virtual box.

Service won't start.

Installed SP1.

Service won't start.

Installed SP2.

Service won't start.

the error I get is very generic:

Windows could not start the SQL Server (SQKEXPRESS) service on Local Computer. 
Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. 

Surely, there's nothing in the ERRORLOG file from the SqlServer installation

2018-12-10 07:50:29.17 Server Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (RTM) - 10.0.1600.22 (X64) Jul 9 2008 14:17:44 Copyright (c) 1988-2008 Microsoft Corporation Express Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.2 (Build 9200: )

2018-12-10 07:50:29.17 Server (c) 2005 Microsoft Corporation. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server All rights reserved. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server Server process ID is 6176. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server System Manufacturer: 'innotek GmbH', System Model: 'VirtualBox'. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server Authentication mode is WINDOWS-ONLY. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server Logging SQL Server messages in file 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG'. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server This instance of SQL Server last reported using a process ID of 5876 at 10/12/2018 07.14.24 (local) 10/12/2018 15.14.24 (UTC). This is an informational message only; no user action is required. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server Registry startup parameters: -d c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\master.mdf -e c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Log\ERRORLOG -l c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA\mastlog.ldf 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server SQL Server is starting at normal priority base (=7). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2018-12-10 07:50:29.19 Server Detected 1 CPUs. This is an informational message; no user action is required.

oh what fun!

hmm. in the system log, under Windows Logs>Application I see a bunch of information entries from the MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS none of which is an error. However, right before that there's an error from the Security-SPP process which mentions something about:

License Activation (Slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x803F7001

as the figure shows:

Answer 1

According to MSDN, Windows 10 is not a supported OS for SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/it-it/library/ms143506(v=sql.105).aspx#Express32

Perhaps your application will run on a new version of Express that supports your OS, such as 2014?

Answer 2

I expect that the downvotes are because virtualbox isn't considered a reasonable business practice. SQL Express on Windows 10 in a virtualbox VM is similarly... usually not best practice, but I can see how SQL Express might be required for certain applications you might be administering (I've supported one on bare metal, sigh).

The error message you've quoted:

License Activation (Slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x803F7001

generally indicates that the slui.exe was unable to reach the activation server. Virtualbox makes debugging this more complicated, but my guess would be that the host system's antivirus or something else on the host (the firewall?) blocked slui.exe's network traffic. In my experience, a lot of antivirus on desktop systems dislikes VMs doing things like activating software, sending email, etc.