The enlist operation failed (reason: SQLServerAgent Error)

Question

Hello!

Here's the excerpt from MS official curriculum on Administering SQL server:

To set up multiserver configuration:

"1. In SQL Server Management Studio, in Object Explorer, under MIA-SQL, right-click SQL Server Agent, point to Multi Server Administration, and then click Make this a Master.

2. In the Master Server Wizard - MIA-SQL dialog box, on the Welcome to the Master Server Wizard

page, click Next.

3. On the Master Server Operator page, in the E-mail address box, type

******@adventureworks.com, and then click Next.

4. On the Target Servers page, expand Database Engine, expand Local Server Groups, click miasql\

sql2, click the >, and then click Next.

5. In the Checking Server Compatibility dialog box, click Close.

6. On the Master Server Login Credentials page, click Next.

7. On the Complete the Wizard page, click Finish.

8. When configuration is complete, click Close."

• it says nothing about configuring anything else - especially TLS - before we can proceed to multiserver configuration.

Nevertheless, following this guide leads to this error:

...so

Q1) What am I supposed to do to make the target server "establish an ancrypted connection to the master server"?

I've seen several articles on the issue and all of them just suggest to turn the encryption off by setting MsxEncryptChannelOptions(REG_DWORD) to 0 but why should I turn it off if multiserver administration can - theoretically - work in the more secure way?

Q2) Rhetorical question: how come the official guide posts the steps that lead to the error by default?

Thank you in advance,
Michael

Answer 1

I have configured TLS on both servers according this article but to no avail - the error is still the same... Does this "feature" work as expected at all???

Answer 2

Solved: you should use FQDNs for both master and slave servers while configuring Multiserver Administration (I mean connecting to the the master server in SSMS using the master's FQDN and then adding the second server in the Multi Administration wizard using the secondary's FQDN):