Did you know that you can change the password on the SQL Service account that is running your SQL instance without a reboot or restart?  Turns out this is true.  We have a new round of password requirements and it means that we need to change passwords on servers more often. But, since we need our servers up and reboots have to be heavily planned, we needed a solution that kept us from having to restart an instance after a password change. This lovely msdn article explains all the details, but let me give you the cliffs notes.

First, standard warning: Don’t do this in production until you have tested it over and over and are completely comfortable with how it will work in your environment.

Now to the fun part: Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager, then SQL Server Services  and right click on the service on which you will be changing your password. Select Properties.

Here you are going to update the password and confirm the password and click OK.

Guess what? That’s it! On a stand alone instance the new password will take effect immediately and as the msdn article highlights, clusters get tricky.

Happy Server Securing!