MSCRM: Installing - the instance name must be the same as the computer name

When installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM MSCRM 4.0 you get the error "the instance name must be the same as the computer name" from the installation wizard Microsoft SQL Server System Requirements check.

This may be because 1) the server name has been changed since SQL Server was installed, or 2) you are running a 64-bit or Windows Server 2008 environment.

Note that in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 "Help", it may state that only SQL Server 2005 is supported. This is not the case; for more information please see the Microsoft Knowledgebase article "Support for running Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 together with Microsoft SQL Server 2008".

To check if the server name has been changed since SQL Server was installed, open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and run the following query:
SELECT * FROM sys.servers

If the current server name is not listed, then use the following procedures to correct the issue:
Execute sp_dropserver <OldServerName>
Execute sp_addserver <NewServerName>, local

If you are running a 64-bit or Windows Server 2008 environment, then check that Named Pipes have been enabled in the SQL Server Network Configuration (Start menu All Programs Microsoft SQL Server Configuration Tools SQL Server Configuration Manager expand SQL Server Network Configuration highlight Protocols for <SQLInstanceName> Enable Named Pipes.

DEVELOPMENT: Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server

Running a query from SQL Server 2008 over a linked server connection to a SQL Server 2000 server causes the following error:

OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "mylinkedserver" returned message "Unspecified error".
OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "mylinkedserver" returned message "The stored procedure required to complete this operation could notbe found on the server. Please contact your system administrator.".
Msg 7311, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider interface, but returns a failure code when it is used.

Or

The stored procedure required to complete this operation could not be found on the server. Please contact your system administrator.
Msg 7311, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server "". The provider supports the interface, but returns a failure code when it is used.


Firstly, SQL Server 2000 SP4 (service pack 4) must be installed.

Then the system stored procedures must be manually upgraded.

Note that when manually upgrading the system stored procedures, we used SQL Server Authentication mode which requires the syntax:
osql -U [adminlogin]-P [adminpassword]-S [linkedservername]-i [location]\instcat.sql

We first entered the line as:
osql -U sa -P myPassword -S myServer -i C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Install\instcat.sql

But this just bought up the osql help /? list of parameters. To avoid this, make sure that the -i path is in speech marks!
osql -U sa -P myPassword -S myServer -i "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Install\instcat.sql"

Note that the manual upgrade takes a couple of minutes to run and there are a whole bunch of message and numbers displayed in the command window as it executes. If the process is successful, then the last but one line will read "instcat.sql completed successfully".

In our experience, the SQL Service did not need to be restarted, the fix worked immediately and we were able to query the SQL Server 2000 server from SQL Server 2008 over the link immediately:
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM myLinkedServer.myDatabase.dbo.myTable

We hope that this tip helps others new to SQL Server 2008 development!

Please see our website for more information on our software development services and software development resources.

DEVELOPMENT: rsReportServerDatabaseUnavailable on Reporting Services 2008

Trying to connect to the SQL Server Reporting Services reports server for the first time using http://MyServerName/Reportserver, we got the following error:

The report server cannot open a connection to the report server database. A connection to the database is required for all requests and processing. (rsReportServerDatabaseUnavailable) Get Online Help. SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

Using http://localhost/Reportserver opened a login dialog, but the administrator username and password didn't work.

Discussing this with the company who supplied the server, it came to light that the server name had been changed after SQL Server Reporting Services had been installed.

We resolved this by using the rsconfig utility:

Opening a Command Prompt and executing a line like this:
rsconfig -c -sMyServerName -dReportServer -aWindows -uDomain\Account -pMyPassword

Followed by resetting IIS (Internet Information Services)
iisreset

We hope this helps!

DEVELOPMENT: SQL Server 2008 - saving changes is not permitted

After installing SQL Server 2008 we were unable to save updates to any of the existing database tables. Every time we tried to save a change to the table, we got the following error:

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can’t be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

To resolve this, click the SQL Server Management Studio Tools Options Designers option and untick the "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation" checkbox.

We hope this helps anyone else that's new to SQL Server 2008 development!