One linked server succeeds while others fail to same server

[jcaulder]

I have an environment with 42 remote subscribers and am trying to create linked server connections from my subscribers to my publisher server so I can run queries from subscribers. I am able to successfully create linked servers from some subscribers but not others. All of the SQL Servers for the subscribers are the same version(SQL Express 2008). The error I receive is simply a 'timeout expired' when trying to create the linked server. The message also says that the "remote server may not be configured to allow data access" however I know that isn't true since it is working correctly for some servers. Any ideas on what I can check to determine why some servers can create the link but others cannot? Is there something that would block specific servers from creating a link while allowing others?

TIA!

 

[djj55]

What do the updates look like on the different servers? We had a problem that the latest round of MS updates keep machines with the update from talking to (through SQL) a machine without updates.

Did the updates on the outlier and all is well.


Note that I could ping both ways successfully.

djj
The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23) - I need someone to lead me!

 

[jcaulder]

We have different servers in our environment ranging from Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The publisher or server I am trying to link to is Windows Server 2008. All subscribers are running the same SQL Server versions(SQL Express 2008) while publisher is running SQL Server 2008 Enterprise.

I am trying to extend the functionality of an update tool I wrote to allow the remote server to pull updates from the publisher outside of replication. I have successfully created linked servers from publisher to all subscribers without problem. It is from subscriber to publisher that only works on a few servers.

While I was typing this I was able to determine that using IP address instead of server name allowed the linked server connection to succeed on some(probably all) of those that were failing. I am trying to determine what the underlying cause of this is at the moment...

 

[gmmastros]

In my experience....

When computer name doesn't work, and IP Address does, it is usually a problem with DNS. I don't know a lot about DNS but I would encourage you to investigate it.

-George
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[jcaulder]

Yes, I got with my network admin and he confirmed that "host files were not correctly delivered to those machines as part of their original image". It is a DNS issue and I am by no means an expert on that either.

Since the IP address works, the problem is resolved and I at least can move forward with my real task.

Thanks!