How to fix (bring online) snapshot if original database becomes suspect or unavailable?

Recently I was asked this question multiple times from various people and hence I thought to write a small post on this. If original database becomes suspect or unavailable for any reason, any snapshot of that same original database also becomes inaccessible (offline) immediately.

Unfortunately there is no way you can bring the snapshot online when the original database is not available.

This behavior is by design of snapshot technology only. In very brief, snapshot itself is not an independent copy of the original database and hence it solely depends on the original database’s availability to remain functional. Please refer to http://blog.consultdba.com/2010/01/complete-guide-on-database-snapshot-sql.html if you want to read more about this.