Unable to start the Transact-SQL debugger, could not connect to the database engine instance

Question

I have been trying to run debugging within SQl server management studio and for some reason the debugger has just stopped working.

This is the message I get:

Unable to start the Transact-SQL debugger, could not connect to the database engine instance 'server-sql'. Make sure you have enabled the debugging firewall exceptions and are using a login that is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role. The RPC server is unavailable.

Before this I get two messages, one requesting firewall permissions and the next says 'usage' with some text that makes little sense.

I have looked at the other similar answers on there for the same message which suggest adding the login as a sysadmin but that is already set. I also tried adding sysadmin to another account but that also didn't work.

Answer 1

In the end I was able to start it by right clicking and selecting run as administrator.

Answer 2

This happened to me and I could not find the resolution anywhere. My firewall is disabled so I knew that couldn't be the issue.

According to Microsoft: Configure firewall rules before running the TSQL Debugger:

The server needs to communicate back to the client via RPC. The account under which SQL Server service is running should have authenticate permissions to the client.

We had a group policy that was preventing this:

Deny access to this computer from the network (Local account, Guests)

In order to resolve the issue, I had to add the SQL Server service account to the local group "Remote Desktop Users" on my desktop. Hope this helps someone else resolve this frustrating issue.

Answer 3

I encountered this issue while connected to SQL using a SQL Server Authenticated user. Once I tried using a Windows Authenticated user I was able to debug without issue. That user must also be assigned the sysadmin role.