Hi,

I have a SQL Server Standard 2008 R2 instance running which was upgraded from the Express version. This is on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine set up as a domain controller.

I am now trying to implement some Replication (following the Stairways series on sqlservercentral.com http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Stairway+Series/72274/) and am getting problems due to (I think) the SQL Server Agent not running.

First confusion is that under services.msc it states that the SQL Server Agent is running, but inside SSMS the SQL Server Agent node has a little white x inside a red circle indicating that it is not running. If I try to start it inside SSMS I get a message:

Unable to start service SQLAGENT$SQLEXPRESS on server < my server name >. (mscorlib)
Additional Information:
The SQLAGENT$SQLEXPRESS service on < my server name > started and then stopped. (ObjectExplorer)

The SQL Server Agent is set to log on as "Network Service".

I have found lots of stuff about this on-line but nothing seems to work, or I am getting lost in the quagmire of too much information. Any guidance would be welcome.