Date Created" for the master database show such an old date (8 April 2003) in SQL Server

Question

Hi Team,

Why does the "Date Created" for the master and model databases show such an old date (8 April 2003) in SQL Server. Will you please let us know the reason behind it and is there any way to update it once installed SQL server

Thanks,

Vinay.

Answer 1

Hi @Yegineni, Vinay,

This is simply Microsoft's default created date since the mdf/mdb files for default databases (master included) are "Copied" during the installation process.

Here are related threads contained some discussion.

https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/144362/why-does-the-date-created-for-the-master-database-show-such-an-old-date-8-apr

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/270233/why-sa-account-show-create-date-2003-04-08

Best regards,

Seeya

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Answer 2

the master database is built outside sqlserver, and shipped with the sqlserver install. The master database build utility has a fixed create date.

there is no particular reason to update it.

Answer 3

Yes, it's kind of funny. When I look at my SQL 2022 instances, I see this:

tempdb has the date when I most recently rebooted my computer. master and model has this very ancient date in 2003, whereas msdb has a date from October last year. Now, SQL 2022 was not released to RTM until mid-November, so the date for msdb is not when I installed SQL Server, so it's not the date when I installed my instance. I have no idea, but maybe that reflects the date when the RTM bits were frozen, and they made no changes to msdb after that date.

But why does master and model have these arcane dates? Probably because these databases are not created in any normal way, but the data for these come from an installation script. Which no one has thought about updating for the last twenty years. Because that much is sure. The master and model you get with an SQL 2022 install is significantly different from the one for SQL 2005.

For fun, I also looked at an Azure SQL Managed Instance I have access to, and on this instance, master, model and msdb all have dates from 2022-10-31 21:16:06, which may reflect when this instance was created.