Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of unrealone1
unrealone1Flag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on

Cannot connect to configuration database - SBS 2011 company intranet

Came to the helpdesk this morning to see a screenshot of someone trying to go to the intranet site of companyweb from sbs 2011 and it saying only "cannot connect to configuration database". After not changing anything i go to the site on the sbs server and it comes up with the iis7 menu saying welcome in all different languages. click it and it sends me to a Microsoft page.

I'm not good at IIS or sharepoint - never touched it. Any ideas? At the very worse is there a way to get the files out of the sharepoint. I know the directory of the sharepoint and I know they store the files in a blob, how can i export this to the actual files, just in case worse comes to worse.

Thanks,

Jon
Avatar of Dan McFadden
Dan McFadden
Flag of United States of America image

Can you verify that the database server is running?

Also, this has been discussed on EE before:

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28097309/SBS-2011-Companyweb-Cannot-connect-to-the-configuration-database.html

Dan
Avatar of unrealone1

ASKER

Hi dan,

I can see all the services running and can see the site in IIS management.

That thread goes into re-install. I am hesitant to do that as they store a lot of files on this site which is why i want to know the process of extracting these files out of the SQL element. Could you shine some light on this?

Thanks
Before you go exporting the data out of the database, you should confirm that you can connect to the database.  For 2 reasons:

1.  Sharepoint is stating that is cannot connect to the database
2.  If Sharepoint can find or connect, then you most likely will not be able to connect to the db to export

You need to confirm that the SQL Server is running and accessible.  There is a good chance that doing this may reconcile the issue.  If it doesn't help sharepoint, then at least you know you can connect to the SQL Server and see the table structure.

Dan
I can see all the SQL elements of the site. I can get them from the information in IIS where I can still see the site. Before I rebooted I could try and open it but it send it was in use with another program. I am seeing if I can open it now however I think it will return with the same error.
I can get test connection through IIS using domain admin. Authentication is all good and the path is accessible. however still cannot access through ie or chrome
Do you have access to the SQL Server Management Studio utility?

Dan
I know you say nothing on the server has changed, but it may be helpful to try the steps mentioned in the technet blog below.

Link:  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/sbs/2011/07/06/potential-issues-after-installing-sharepoint-foundation-2010-sp1/

Dan
Dan's got some great points for you to follow. While testing, also do an IIS reset, (provided you don't interrupt any business activity during the day), and see if that will reconnect SharePoint to the SQL server. Also, check in Windows Services to see if the service "SQL Server", or something similar, is running.

Hope that helps...
It may also be useful to go thru the "Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" to check and verify the system config.

Everything is read about this issue has basically come down to either sharepoint losing connectivity to SQL Server, SQL Server is not running or the App Pool ID does not have access.

Dan
Thanks for the input guys. I will have a few more looks and also getting microsoft involved with this. Can this connection still be lost even if the SQL, Sharepoint and IIS server is the same box?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Walter Curtis
Walter Curtis
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Thank you guys for all your insight. This was resolved by Microsoft doing some wizardry. I am by no means an expert or veteran of SharePoint but I now understand it better than I did thanks to you guys.
Glad you got it working.