SQL Server – Resolve Error 5030 to Rename Database

When you want to rename your database and you hit the error below, you need to set the database to​​ Single User Mode. After you rename your database, then you set the database back to Multi-User mode.​​

Msg 5030, Level 16, State 2, Line 1

The database could not be​​ exclusively locked to perform the operation

Follow the steps​​ below to rename your database.​

1. Set the database to single-mode

ALTER DATABASE OLD_DBName SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;

2. Rename the Database

ALTER DATABASE OLD_DBName MODIFY NAME = NEW_DBNAME;

3. Set the database to Multi-user mode

ALTER DATABASE NEW_DBNAME SET MULTI_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;

You may check out this blog post where I show a better way to rename a database.

Cheers!