Microsoft KB Archive/938217

Knowledge Base

Error message when you run the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration" wizard to configure SharePoint Server 2007: "Failed to create the configuration database"

Article ID: 938217

Article Last Modified on 7/16/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

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SYMPTOMS

Consider the following scenario. You install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a server in a server farm. The server farm deployment uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as the database server. You run the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration" wizard to configure SharePoint Server 2007.

In this scenario, you receive the following error message during step 2 of the wizard:

Failed to create the configuration database

An Exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException was thrown. Additional Exception: unable to connect to database. Check database connection information and make sure the database server is running.

CAUSE

This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:

• The default instance of SQL Server 2005 was created as a named instance.
• You did not specify the instance name in the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration" wizard.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, specify the instance name of SQL Server 2005 when you specify the database server in the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration" wizard. When you do this, use the following format:

DatabaseServerName\InstanceName

MORE INFORMATION

If you use the default instance of SQL Server 2005, the service is listed in the Services tool as SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER). If you use a named instance of SQL Server 2005, the service is listed in the Services tool as SQL Server (InstanceName).

Additional query words: MOSS2007

Keywords: kberrmsg kbtshoot kbprb kbexpertiseinter KB938217

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