Installing and configuring the ArcSDE service for SQL server is an easy job, but sometimes the ArcSDE service which is dependent on SQL server stops due to server restart or due to user shutdown. This happens even though the ArcSDE service is set to automatic start in case there is a server reboot.

Problem: The ArcSDE 9.3 service running on SQL server cannot be started. When attempted to start from GUI (cmd ->services.msc -> rt click esri_sde service -> start), it will show an error message that "the ArcSDE service started and stopped. This may happen due to the fact that some services may stop as they have no work to do"

Solution/Approach:

1. run -> cmd -> sdeservice -o list (this will list the status of the sde service running)
Note: to see the status of the service use ------ sdemon -o status -i 5151 ------
2. sdemon -o start
Provide the sde password that was created during the ArcSDE installation.

This will start the service !!!