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Ryan McDonough
Ryan McDonough

Reputation: 10012

What exactly is an instance-specific error

Okay so I got:

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server.

Now I know what the problem is (web server couldn't see the database server), however I'm wondering what exactly an instance specific error is and if people have examples? I know it's specific to an instance but what kind of things would fall under that?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 132

Answers (2)

Alex Filipovici
Alex Filipovici

Reputation: 32571

How to Troubleshoot Connecting to the SQL Server Database Engine is a good article about troubleshooting the exception you reference in your question. It summarizes the causes to the following:

This error usually means that the SQL Server computer can't be found or that the TCP port number is either not known, or is not the correct port number, or is blocked by a firewall.

If you go through the troubleshooting steps, you will find out that the place to search for the problem is not only network related, but it could be, for example:

  • the database engine not being configured to accept remote connections on the specific instance
  • the used protocol not being enabled (for example TCP/IP) on the specific instance

I guess that the exception message tries to keep your troubleshooting focus on more than one option when it comes to put the the finger on the certain culprit subsystem. Or maybe it's just a way of reporting a connection related exception which is impossible to trace.

Upvotes: 1

Wiktor Zychla
Wiktor Zychla

Reputation: 48279

Instance in this context means an instance of SQL Server. As you remember, SQL server can be installed in multiple instances on the same machine. Instances are adressed machinename\instancename or by IP x.y.z.t:instanceport.

The error means that the instance you are trying to connect cannot be reached while this is unknown whether or not other instances are running and can be contacted. Thus the "instance specific" error.

Upvotes: 1

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