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Unable to connect to SQL Server using Tableau

SQLLover21 201 Reputation points
2021-04-09T21:25:34.897+00:00

A service account in tableau is facing the following error when trying to access stored procedures and views:

Error message Connection Failure (status code = 3000, [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]SQL Server Network Interfaces: Error Locating Server/Instance Specified [xFFFFFFFF]. [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]Login timeout expired [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server]A network-related or instance-specific error has occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. Server is not found or not accessible. Check if instance name is correct and if SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. For more information see SQL Server Books Online. Unable to connect to the Microsoft SQL Server server "Server\Instance". Check that the server is running and that you have access privileges to the requested database.)

I have tried the following things to troubleshoot:

  • made sure the correct server name is being specified
  • there are no alias's set
  • this instance is using the non-default port
  • tried to login to Tableau using variations of styles: <servername>, portnumber
  • SQL Browser is started
  • able to ping the server name only. unable to ping server\instance (this is expected)
  • TCP/IP is enabled

What other things can I do to further troubleshoot and resolve this issue? Thank you in advance

SQL Server | Other
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  1. Erland Sommarskog 122K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-04-09T21:56:20.583+00:00

    The error message means that the SQL Server instance is not reached.

    You have a couple items on your list, you don't mention firewalls. The firewall must also permit UDP 1434, if you want to connect by instance name.

    I should add that I am not familiar with Tableau.

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  2. Cris Zhan-MSFT 6,661 Reputation points
    2021-04-12T06:14:15.403+00:00

    Hi,

    You can also try to connect to SQL Server using SSMS and refer to the following documents to Troubleshoot connecting to the SQL Server Database Engine.

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/troubleshoot-connecting-to-the-sql-server-database-engine?view=sql-server-ver15

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