When you try to install the Forefront Identity
Manager (FIM) 2010 R2 SP1 Synchronization Service to use an off-box SQL Server
instance you receive the following error "Forefront Identity Manager
Synchronization Service Evaluation is having trouble contacting SQL server
using the provided information. Please note that Forefront Identity Manager
Synchronization requires Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 or better. Verify the
version, server and instance names as well as firewall."
In this particular instance FIM 2010 R2 SP1 is
running on Windows Server 2008 R2 and the SQL Server is Windows Server 2012 R2
with SQL 2012 Standard. As with all off-box SQL instance I had created a ODBC
(64-bit) from the FIM server, to the SQL. When I tested connectivity it all
came back as working.
As part of the troubleshooting I tried the
following things without success
· Connectivity
and Name Resolution
o Ping
and Nslookup
· SQL
Services
o Ensured
SQL Server Browser and SQL Server Agent were set to Automatic and Running
· Disabled
the SQL Server Firewall
o To
rule out any issues with port 1433, then tried Telnet all OK
Although all of these tests came back positive
the issue was not resolved. The issue was with the SQL ODBC connection from FIM
to SQL. I had created the ODBC using the standard SQL Server Client build into
Windows Server 2008 R2.
The fix was to install the SQL Server 2012 Native
Client, which can be downloaded from Microsoft http://microsoft.com/en-gb/download/confirmation.aspx?id=29065
Once I recreated the ODBC connection with the SQL
Server 2012 Native Client the setup then allowed me to continue, the next step
was to configure the FIM security groups.
