"Adaptive Server is unavailable or does not exist" error connecting to SQL Server from PHP

Question

I'm attempting to connect to a SQL Server 2005 DB from my Mac using unixODBC and FreeTDS as I have outlined here. However, when I try to connect in to a different DB using the same setup, I get:

Connection Failed:[FreeTDS][SQL Server]Unable to connect: Adaptive Server is unavailable or does not exist.

Here is my freetds.conf setup:

[my_db]
host = 12.34.56.789
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0

And here is my odbc.ini:

[my_dsn]
Driver = /opt/local/lib/libtdsodbc.so
Description = My Database
Trace = no
Servername = my_db
Database = MyDB

[ODBC Data Sources]
my_dsn = FreeTDS

I am still able to connect to the other DB I set up on this computer (described in my blog post linked above), so I'm pretty sure that the error isn't on the Mac end. I've verified on the server that I'm using the correct IP address and port. Any thoughts on what could be the problem, and if it's on the server end?

Answer 1

1. See information about the SQL server

tsql -LH SERVER_IP_ADDRESS

locale is "C"
locale charset is "646"
ServerName TITAN
InstanceName MSSQLSERVER
IsClustered No
Version 8.00.194
tcp 1433
np \\TITAN\pipe\sql\query

2. Set your freetds.conf

tsql -C    
freetds.conf directory: /usr/local/etc

[TITAN]
host = SERVER_IP_ADDRESS
port = 1433
tds version = 7.2

3 Try

tsql -S TITAN -U user -P password

OR

 'dsn' => 'dblib:host=TITAN:1433;dbname=YOURDBNAME',

See also http://www.freetds.org/userguide/confirminstall.htm (Example 3-5.)

If you get message 20009, remember you haven't connected to the machine. It's a configuration or network issue, not a protocol failure. Verify the server is up, has the name and IP address FreeTDS is using, and is listening to the configured port.

Answer 2

After countless hours of frustration I managed to get all working:

odbcinst.ini:

[FreeTDS]
Description = FreeTDS Driver v0.91
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
Setup = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsS.so
fileusage=1
dontdlclose=1
UsageCount=1

odbc.ini:

[test]
Driver = FreeTDS
Description = My Test Server
Trace = No
#TraceFile = /tmp/sql.log
ServerName = mssql
#Port = 1433
instance = SQLEXPRESS
Database = usedbname
TDS_Version = 4.2

FreeTDS.conf:

[mssql]
host = hostnameOrIP
instance = SQLEXPRESS
#Port = 1433
tds version = 4.2

First test connection (mssql is a section name from freetds.conf):

tsql -S mssql -U username -P password

You must see some settings but no errors and only a 1> prompt. Use quit to exit.

Then let's test DSN/FreeTDS (test is a section name from odbc.ini; -v means verbose):

isql -v test username password -v

You must see message Connected!