Enabling remote access to sql server 2008 on a windows 2008 server
I recently installed SQL Server 2008 on a brand new server (HP Proliant GL360 G6) with Windows Server 2008 Standard on it . It all went fine and I could start Sql Server Studion Management tool right after the installation.
It is only when I was trying to access that server remotely that I got into problems! It just couldn’t connect to the sql server and was getting the folowing error:
SQL Server 2008 Remote Access error
I tried accessing via IP address as well but that wasn’t successfull either. A look into the firewall was then in order. By default in Windows 2008 Server every ports, except a very few ones, are disabled. If you are using the default port for your sql engine, the port number 1433 needs to be enabled. I have also enabled port number 1434 for SQL Browser service. The following screen shots shows the step needed to allow remote access to sql server 2008 on a windows 2008 server.
First of all, you need to ensure that Remote Connections are allowed within SQL Server configuration:
Right click on the registered server and choose Properties
Check Allow remote connections box
Once this is done, you can start looking into the Firewall setting.
This is how to access Windows Firewall setting on Windows Server 2008
Firewall main screen
Click on Inbound Rules
Righ click on Inbound Rules and choose Add...
Choose Port
Choose TCP and type the Port number
Choose Allow the connection
Uncheck if further restrictions apply in your environment
Name it accordingly
That's it!
Now, if you also want to set the SQL Browser service port, you just need to choose UDP instead of TCP.
SQL Browser service - UDP Port 1434
Good luck!
