TSQL Having trouble adding a linked SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2000

Question

I'm having trouble trying to create a Linked Server to connect from a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance to a SQL Server 2000 instance using Windows Auth.

I can connect to SQL Server 2000 with SSMS with Windows Auth so network and user permissions should be OK.

Here's what I'm using so far

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver 
         @server = N'SalesLogix_db'
        ,@srvproduct=N'SalesLogix_db'
        ,@provider=N'SQLNCLI'
        ,@datasrc=N'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'
    GO

--Windows Authentication
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin 
         @rmtsrvname=N'SalesLogix_db'
        ,@useself=N'True'
        ,@locallogin=NULL
        ,@rmtuser=NULL
        ,@rmtpassword=NULL
    GO

EXEC master.dbo.sp_testlinkedserver SalesLogix_db;

And this is the error.

OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "SalesLogix_db" returned message "Login timeout expired".
OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "SalesLogix_db" returned message "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.".

Msg 53, Level 16, State 1, Line 24
Named Pipes Provider: Could not open a connection to SQL Server [53].

Where am I going wrong?

Thanks in advance

SQLGuy SQLGuy · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-13T06:55:46

+1, I got the exact same error message today in a similar setup (sql 2008 R2 server linking to a sql 2008 server). I had existing linked servers which worked fine, but all of a sudden stopped working (exact same error message as you).

I narrowed it down to a batch of recent Windows Security Updates (~14 of them) on the linked server (running windows 2008 R2). I ended up rolling back those updates which resolved the issue temporarily.

At this point, I'm trying to figure out which one of these updates (KBxxxx) is the exact culprit.

TSQL Having trouble adding a linked SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2000

2 Answers