Troubleshooting problems with connection to SQL Server 2014
If you have problems with connection to SQL Server 2014, review this troubleshooting checklist
to find potential solutions.
1. Install the latest SQL Server 2014 service pack.
Because many SQL Server 2014 connection bugs were fixed in SQL Server service packs, you
should install the latest SQL Server service pack.
At the time this article was written the latest SQL Server 2014 service pack was service
pack 1. You can download the SQL Server 2014 service pack 1 at here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46694
2. Check that the user exists in the database you are connected to.
If you get the error message indicates that the user is not a valid user in the database,
ask your database administrator to give the user appropriate permissions.
3. Ensure that the client and the server use the same Net-Library.
The client connected to SQL Server 2014 must use a client Net-Library that matches one
of the server Net-Libraries the server is currently listening on.
4. Check that you specify the SQL Server name correctly.
If you get the error message indicates that “Specified SQL Server not found” check that
you specify SQL Server name correctly and SQL Server you are connected to is started.
5. If you cannot connect to SQL Server 2014 check the firewall.
Firewall may block connection request to SQL Server. You can turn off firewall for a short
time to isolate if this is a firewall issue. If the firewall block connection to
SQL Server 2014, put the TCP port on which the SQL Server listens on into exception.
6. Ensure that the ‘single user’ database option is turned off.
If you get the error message indicates that database is already open and can only have one
user at a time, the ‘single user’ database option is turned on. In this case, ask your
database administrator to set this database option to off.
7. Check that the ‘DBO use only’ database option is turned off.
If you get the error message indicates that only the owner can access the database, the
‘DBO use only’ database option is turned on. Ask your database administrator to set this
database option to off if not only the database owner can access the database.
8. To isolate connectivity problems, you can disable the Shared Memory protocol.
The Shared Memory protocol is used only for client/server connections on the same computer,
and this protocol used by default for intra-computer communications.
9. If you cannot connect to SQL Server 2014 check the network connection first.
The first step to troubleshoot SQL Server connectivity issues is to make sure the network
is workable and stable. To check the network connection you can use the ping and nslookup
commands. If you cannot ping the SQL Server box, then either the network is broken or the
target machine is not running.
10. The error occurs when you do not specify a login database and the default database is
unavailable at the time of the connection.
This is the error message text: “Cannot open user default database”. This problem occurs
because each user has a default database and if you do not specify a login database, the
default database is used. In this case, if the default database is unavailable at the time
of the connection, you will get the connection error. To work around this problem, you
should specify a valid, available database in the connection string.
11. If you cannot connect to SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services, ensure that
SQL Server Browser service is started and was running under the account
that has local administrator rights.
The SQL Server Browser service enables client applications to connect to a named instance
of Analysis Services by specifying the name of the instance rather than the TCP port number.
To connect to SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services by specifying the name of the instance, the
SQL Server Browser service must be running under the account with local administrator rights.
For example, you can configure to run SQL Server Browser service under the local system account.
12. An application cannot connect to a contained database when connection pooling is enabled.
This problem occurs when the application uses SQL Server authentication. This bug was first
fixed in Cumulative Update package 1 for SQL Server 2014. You can download the Cumulative
Update package 1 for SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2931693
13. The transaction isolation level is reset incorrectly when the SQL Server 2014 connection
is released.
This problem occurs when you use the TransactionScope class in SQL Server client-side source
code, and you do not explicitly open the SQL Server connection in a transaction. This bug was
first fixed in Cumulative Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014. You can download the Cumulative
Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3031047
14. Error occurs when you connect to the database engine after you install Cumulative
Update package 4 for SQL Server 2014.
This problem occurs when you use SQL Server Management Studio to connect to the database
engine. This bug was first fixed in Cumulative Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014.
You can download the Cumulative Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3031047
15. There are many connections with the program name “SQLAgent – Temporary Worker” that
are created by “sqlagent.exe” and cannot be closed.
This problem occurs when you let SQL Server and SQL Server Agent run for several days.
This bug was first fixed in Cumulative Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014.
You can download the Cumulative Update package 6 for SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3031047
16. The error occurs when you use SQL Server 2014 SQL Profiler to connect to an instance
of SQL Server 2005.
This is the error message text: “SQL Server Profiler cannot perform this action on database
servers earlier than SQL Server 2005. Please use SQL Server 2005 or later.” This bug was
first fixed in Cumulative Update package 7 for SQL Server 2014. You can download the
Cumulative Update package 7 for SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3046038
17. You cannot connect to SQL Server 2014 by using the Transport Layer Security (TLS)
protocol version 1.2.
This is SQL Server 2014 connectivity bug. This bug was first fixed in Cumulative Update
package 8 for SQL Server 2014. You can download the Cumulative Update package 8 for
SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3067836
18. Access violation occurs when you use the sqlcmd utility to connect to an instance
of SQL Server 2014 and specify an input file.
This is SQL Server 2014 connectivity bug. This bug was first fixed in Cumulative Update
package 9 for SQL Server 2014. You can download the Cumulative Update package 9 for
SQL Server 2014 at here:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3075949