Menu
I have installed SQL Server 2008 Developer on Windows 7 (64 bit). In SQL Management Studio I cannot register the default instance MSSQLSERVER. It cannot find it although the service is running. I get the message:
Cannot connect to PHOENIX\MSSQLSERVER.
A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 25 - Connection string is not valid) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 87)
However SQL Server Management Studio does show the SQL Server 2005 Express instance (that was installed with VS 2008 Pro) which appeared as already registered. I am using Windows Authentication as I installed it in mixed mode.
How do I connect to an MSSQLSERVER instance using SQL Server Management Studio?
468
What is Default Instance. If there is no SQL server installed yet, a default instance will be created unless the user specifies a named instance. There can only be one default instance. The default instance name is MSSQLSERVER.
Start SQL Server 2008 Express Setup. On the Instance Configuration page, click Default Instance. Notice that the instance name is SQLEXPRESS.
User Action. Make sure that you have entered the correct server name on the client, and that you can resolve the name of the server from the client. To check TCP/IP name resolution, you can use the ping command in the Windows operating system.
I always connected as:
[machine_name]/[instance_name]
and it wasn't able to connect. What works is connecting simply as:
[machine_name]
This is probably due to the fact that I am running a DEFAULT instance.
59
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
