The SharePoint Swiss Army Knife

Some of you guys probably already figured this out but I haven’t built a new farm in awhile and this got me scratching my head so I thought I’d write it down so I don’t forget again.

Environment

2 Server farm (1 WFE, 1 SQL)
Windows 2008 STD for both (basic configurations)
WSS v3 SP2
SQL Server 2008

Scenario

After installing the WSS bits, I run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard to create Central Admin. After submitting the database server, name and credential information I get the following error:

An exception of type System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was thrown.  Additional exception information: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 – Could not open a connection to SQL Server).

Resolution

The TCP port to the SQL Database Engine is blocked by the Windows Firewall. Create a new rule to allow inbound traffic to port 1433.