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Problem Connecting to SQL2005 & Surface Area Configuration

I ran into a problem a few days ago where I needed to connect to my SQL Server 2005 instance on my laptop (Windows XP) from another server on my network.  From SQL Management Studio on the server, I typed in the connection info for my laptop’s database and kept getting an error:

Cannot connect to benday-laptopsql2005.  An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.  When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections.

Ok.  So, it looks like I have to enable remote connections, right?  So, I went to SQL Management Studio on my laptop, right-clicked on the instance, selected Properties, then clicked Connections.

 

“Allow remote connections to this server” is checked.  That looks good.  So, why can’t I connect?

Turns out that there’s a second place that connections to SQL Server 2005 can be disabled.  The “SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration” tool.  This is located in the Programs menu under SQL Server 2005’s “Configuration Tools” folder.  Run this tool and click on the “Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections” link at the bottom of the welcome page.  This will take you to the configuration screen.  Find your database instance in the list, expand “Database Engine” and click on “Remote Connections”.  Choose “Local and remote connections”, click OK, and then restart your SQL Server.

Problem solved.

-Ben

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Ben Day

One response to “Problem Connecting to SQL2005 & Surface Area Configuration”

  1. fawad Avatar
    fawad

    Hi Ben,

    I got the same error when I tried to connect with the database. Local & Remote connection check box is also checked.

    So I checked again in Surface Area Configuration and I found that SQLExpress was not running so I tried to run it and it gave me following error:

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.45 Server Microsoft SQL Server 2005 – 9.00.1399.06 (Intel X86)

    Oct 14 2005 00:33:37

    Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation

    Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 2)

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server (c) 2005 Microsoft Corporation.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server All rights reserved.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server Server process ID is 588.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server Logging SQL Server messages in file ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLLOGERRORLOG’.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server This instance of SQL Server last reported using a process ID of 1020 at 8/2/2006 4:19:07 PM (local) 8/2/2006 11:19:07 PM (UTC). This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server Registry startup parameters:

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server -d C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLDATAmaster.mdf

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server -e C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLLOGERRORLOG

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.46 Server -l C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL.1MSSQLDATAmastlog.ldf

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.53 Server SQL Server is starting at normal priority base (=7). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:44.53 Server Detected 2 CPUs. This is an informational message; no user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:45.84 Server Using dynamic lock allocation. Initial allocation of 2500 Lock blocks and 5000 Lock Owner blocks per node. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:47.12 Server Attempting to initialize Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:48.39 Server The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) service could not be contacted. If you would like distributed transaction functionality, please start this service.

    2006-08-02 16:20:49.18 Server Database Mirroring Transport is disabled in the endpoint configuration.

    2006-08-02 16:20:50.82 spid5s Starting up database ‘master’.

    2006-08-02 16:20:53.42 spid5s Recovery is writing a checkpoint in database ‘master’ (1). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:55.60 spid5s SQL Trace ID 1 was started by login "sa".

    2006-08-02 16:20:55.89 spid5s Starting up database ‘mssqlsystemresource’.

    2006-08-02 16:20:57.84 spid5s Server name is ‘ACER-BE275CE040’. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:20:57.87 spid9s Starting up database ‘model’.

    2006-08-02 16:20:59.15 spid9s Clearing tempdb database.

    2006-08-02 16:20:59.79 Server A self-generated certificate was successfully loaded for encryption.

    2006-08-02 16:21:00.98 Server Server is listening on [ ‘any’ <ipv4> 1433].

    2006-08-02 16:21:00.98 Server Server local connection provider is ready to accept connection on [ .pipeSQLLocalMSSQLSERVER ].

    2006-08-02 16:21:00.98 Server Server named pipe provider is ready to accept connection on [ .pipesqlquery ].

    2006-08-02 16:21:00.99 Server Server is listening on [ 127.0.0.1 <ipv4> 1434].

    2006-08-02 16:21:00.99 Server Dedicated admin connection support was established for listening locally on port 1434.

    2006-08-02 16:21:01.06 Server The SQL Network Interface library could not register the Service Principal Name (SPN) for the SQL Server service. Error: 0x54b. Failure to register an SPN may cause integrated authentication to fall back to NTLM instead of Kerberos. This is an informational message. Further action is only required if Kerberos authentication is required by authentication policies.

    2006-08-02 16:21:01.07 Server SQL Server is now ready for client connections. This is an informational message; no user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:21:03.48 spid9s Starting up database ‘tempdb’.

    2006-08-02 16:21:04.36 spid12s Starting up database ‘msdb’.

    2006-08-02 16:21:04.36 spid13s Starting up database ‘ReportServer’.

    2006-08-02 16:21:04.36 spid14s Starting up database ‘ReportServerTempDB’.

    2006-08-02 16:21:04.36 spid15s Starting up database ‘C:PROGRAM FILESMICROSOFT SQL SERVERMSSQL.1MSSQLDATAORION_ASP_NET.MDF’.

    2006-08-02 16:21:05.18 spid16s The Service Broker protocol transport is disabled or not configured.

    2006-08-02 16:21:05.18 spid16s The Database Mirroring protocol transport is disabled or not configured.

    2006-08-02 16:21:05.73 spid5s Recovery is writing a checkpoint in database ‘ReportServer’ (5). This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:21:06.23 spid16s Service Broker manager has started.

    2006-08-02 16:21:07.39 spid5s Recovery is complete. This is an informational message only. No user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:27:43.96 spid52 Configuration option ‘show advanced options’ changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

    2006-08-02 16:27:44.34 spid52 Configuration option ‘Agent XPs’ changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

    2006-08-02 16:27:44.35 spid52 Configuration option ‘show advanced options’ changed from 1 to 0. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

    2006-08-02 16:27:44.95 spid52 Using ‘xpsqlbot.dll’ version ‘2005.90.1399’ to execute extended stored procedure ‘xp_qv’. This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:27:45.17 spid52 Using ‘xpstar90.dll’ version ‘2005.90.1399’ to execute extended stored procedure ‘xp_instance_regread’. This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    2006-08-02 16:27:45.26 spid52 Using ‘xplog70.dll’ version ‘2005.90.1399’ to execute extended stored procedure ‘xp_msver’. This is an informational message only; no user action is required.

    ********************************************

    ********************************************

    I am downloading SQLExpress update as well to see if that helps.

    Thank You in anticipation.

    Best Regards.

    Fawad.

    Reply

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