Question

Cannot connect to the configuration database

Asked by: snowsurfer

We have had Windows Sharepoint Services up and running now for two months with no issues.  We have an internal webserver that hosts the front end and our SQL 2000 server hosting the backend.  Over the weekend something has happened.  We are now getting

Cannot connect to the configuration database. For tips on troubleshooting this error, search for article 823287 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com.

I have searched the web fdar and wide with no answers.  The Microsoft article doesnt help.  All of the items listed have checked out.  Our SQl is running on the default port.

I created a new account for the Appliction Pool to use and made sure it has the correct permissions in SQL with no luck.

Anyone have any ideas?

I have not yet rebooted the SQL server.  I am going to try that tonight, but I have cycled the SQL services so I dont think its going to change anything.

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Asked On
2005-10-13 at 09:29:08ID21594047
Tags

configuration

,

connect

,

cannot

,

database

Topic

MS SharePoint

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
16

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Answers

 

by: cjones_mcsePosted on 2005-10-14 at 07:23:32ID: 15085634

Be sure that the account you are using as your DB administrator for Sharepoint has not had a password change recently. Generally that is the cause of these errors especially if it WAS working and then suddenly is not. Just to be certain, I would temporarily change the account to one you KNOW has rights to the DB (i.e. the Domain Admin account) and see if that resolves the problem. If it does, you know you have a permissions issue with the account you are using normally and can troubleshoot from there. If it doesn't, then you have a more serious issue.

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 07:26:05ID: 15085669

I have done what you suggested.  I made a brand new account and got it all setup.  As of now, I have uninstalled and reinstalled sharepoint with no change.  I uninstalled sharepoint and then uninstalled IIS.  I have reinstalled both and I still have the same error except that now its when trying to connect to the config db for the first time.  Hopefully once I get this all up and going my site is still safe inside my sql database.

I have installed the SQL client tools on the web server and I can connect with no problems.  I wrote a simple ASP page to retreive some data from one of the tables and it comes back with information.  I dont know what is broken

 

by: cjones_mcsePosted on 2005-10-14 at 09:42:57ID: 15086894

Okay, so let's step through this. You've gone into the Central Admin page for Sharepoint and gone to "Configure Configuration Database Server." From there you've entered the Config DB that you wanted to use for your site by checking the radio button for "Connect to Existing Configuration Database", entering the name of your SQL server, and specifiying the Config DB name (or selecting the default). Then you've gone into the "Configure Server Farm Account Settings" section and checked "Specify Account" under "Configuration Database Administration Account" and set it to a known good account (preferably your domain admin account...you can change it immediately once you've verified that you do or do not have connectivity) that has admin rights for both your SQL server and your Sharepoint server. You've done all this and you still get the Cannot connect to configuration database error?  If so, you may have a corrupt config db. Have you tried creating a new config db? Do you have a full backup of the site before the config db went down?

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 09:43:53ID: 15086903

Where is the config db stored?

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 09:52:53ID: 15086986

Are you talking about the one is SQL?  If so, yes I have a godo backup of that.  We keep backups back to three weeks

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 09:56:37ID: 15087017

If for whatever reason, that does not work can I create a new config db without losing everything else?  The site has been failry stagnant for a while so there is not much in there, except some nice look and feel work our developer did to the home page.

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 10:04:00ID: 15087074

to test the config idea i made a new db called test and setup the permissions and users and tried to conect to that with the same results.

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 15:03:33ID: 15089290

Well still at a stand still.  Tuesday we are putting in a new web server, I am going to try an connect with it and see what happens

 

by: cjones_mcsePosted on 2005-10-14 at 15:55:16ID: 15089512

The config db is stored in SQL. It will have config_db in the name and does not get backed up with all the others unless you back it up through SQL. According to Microsoft, it isn't worth backing up anyway. There is too much possibility of it becoming corrupted.

You should be able to restore everything without your config db.

You created a new SITE called test or a new CONFIG DB called test? Two very different things.

Your web server really shouldn't have much to do with this problem. It is a permissions issue or an issue with the config_db.

Sorry for the delay in answering. Got a little busy.

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 15:57:27ID: 15089524

I created a new DB called test.  Just a blank one.  then I tried connecting to it from Sharepoint

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-14 at 16:10:30ID: 15089572

I found something that may help.  When you expand Databases in the Enterprise Mangager and then expand our Sharepoint DB.  There is a users section.  What accounts should be in there.  I see one called dbo with a login name of our original sharepoint service account and there is the one I put in there trying to troubleshoot this issue

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-17 at 07:32:09ID: 15099782

Rebooted everything this weekend with no change

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-17 at 07:56:16ID: 15100038

Got it.  Whoohoo.

I re registered the oledb32 file in c:\Program Files\Common Files\System\ole db

From there I was able to reconnect to my site and extend and all is well.

 

by: cjones_mcsePosted on 2005-10-17 at 15:28:44ID: 15103619

Glad you got it working!  You ought to request that your points be refunded as I didn't really answer your question.

 

by: snowsurferPosted on 2005-10-17 at 15:56:11ID: 15103714

You gave me some where to vent, its worth every point.  I have a few thousand points to use anyway.  I help out in Citrix and Windows 2000 questions on here.

Thanks again

 

by: DEALOGICPosted on 2008-10-16 at 04:57:55ID: 22729854

For anyone else that has issues I found that the username domain\servername$ (the servername of the web application tier) hadn't been added to the security for those databases. Once I'd added it it worked.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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