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Dear Experts,
One of the SQL Server jobs keep failing intermittently with this error. The job only connects to a database within the same server.
"Executed as user: Named Pipes Provider: Could not open a connection to SQL Server. The step failed"
On checking the network configuration on server, I see it is like this
However, when we check the SQL Native Client protocols, named pipes is enabled.
Could you please advise what is the impact in this scenario. The job fails only sometimes but most of the time it succeeds.
Regards
Hi @mo boy ,
Please enable Named Pipes protocol for MSSQL server instance when your SQL server connection using Named Pipes protocol.
Your SQL server instance connection succeed sometimes, the connection may use TCP/IP protocol instead of Named Pipes protocol.
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Hi @mo boy ,
Did the issue still occurred after enable named pipes protocol?
You get the error message about Named Pipes, since that is the last thing it tries. I doubt that it would help to enable Named Pipes on the server, but I would prefer to keep it disabled.
Note that for connections on the same server, shared memory is preferred, so if both shared memory and TCP fail, named pipes are also likely to fail.
You said that the job only makes local connections. What kind of job step is it? Have you checked for access to linked servers?
The first step of this job calls a stored proc in a DB within the server.
It fails in the first step in a few seconds sometimes with this error.
@mo boy , Erland asked for the job step type (e.g. Transact-SQL, CMDEXEC, etc.) to help you troubleshoot. In the case of a T-SQL job step, the error could be returned by a linked server used by the stored procedure. In that case, try testing the linked server connection.
hi Dan,
The first step runs a stored procedure, it has only one command. It executes within a database in the SQL instance. it is T-SQL step and runs on the same database on the same server.
exec sp_name
Thanks
Do this: on the job step, go to the advanced page. On this page specify an file to write the output to. Next time you get this error, share the contents of this file, so that we get the full error message.
Check the stored procedure for linked server references (e.g. 4-part names).