* Strange SQL Server Connection Error *

[xrookie]

Hi guys,

We've been experiencing this strange error from our SQL server for about a month now and i've tried alot of things, visited alot of websites and manufactured a few possible solutions but nothing helps! Its very frustrating.
This is the error i get when i try and expand the server tree:

A connection could not be established to [OurServerName]

Reason: SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

ConnectionOpen (Connect())..

Please verify SQL Server is running and check your SQL Server registration properties by clicking on [OurServerName] node) and try again.

What really gets to me is that everything works after i restart the server. Then things will go fine for about a day or two and then the same thing again. This i causing alot of downtime for us. Can anyone please just give me a suggestion?

[rmiao]

Was sql service running when you got this error? Did you see any related message in sql server log and windows event log? Any more details about your server?

[Frank Johnson]

RMIAO is right, you need to check the Windows Event logs and the SQL logs. If it happens again, you should check to see if there are any active connections to the database. When you get the connectivity error, see if you can ping the server by name.

You should run Perfmon. Watch for disk, processor, network/nic, and memory problems that might cause that issue. Monitor you I/O levels to see if you are overloading your PCI ports on your NIC. I have seen Network packet collisions cause network communications failure to a SQL box. It was a phantom for almost 3 days, until we saw it happen on the switch.

It also could be a problem were the service is failing, and the service is set to retry/restart automatically and is happening behind the scene... If you orphan a connection it could cause problems for both the system trying to connect and the SQL Server.

So many places to look... What have you already ruled out?

Hope some of this helped.

Frank

[xrookie]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the late reply but i think its sorted now. I checked the log files and event viewer and ran performance monitor,but didnt find anything that looked like a problem. What i did see though in the event viewer system log was an error that popped up quite alot. The source was MRxSmb. The description: The redirector was unable to initialize security context or query context attributes. I stumbled apon a site that suggested that i look at the Kerberos authentication service under Services and make sure that its on automatic. Mine was on disabled. I changed that and i havent had any problems for the past two days. I really hope that that was really my problem but i'll let you know if it gives me headaches again. Thanks rmiao and Frank Johnson, your help was much appreciated.
;-)