Unable to Connect to ArcGIS for Server Manager after installation of SQL Server Express 2012

JaromHlebasko

I installed ArcGIS for Server 10.2.2 Enterprise Advanced on my local machine and established quite a few connections in ArcCatalog which were successful. I was also able to establish a connection to my manager via localhost:6080/arcgis/manager and everything was working perfectly until this morning when I turned on my computer. I tried to access my manager and it just gives me a blank page. I installed SQL Server Express yesterday so I could establish an Enterprise Geodatabase and was also successful in doing so; however, I cannot connect to my manager now and I have no idea why. Has anyone else had this problem or does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not sure if they are entirely related but it is the only thing I can think of.

Thank you in advance!

JaromHlebasko

I called ESRI technical support and we walked through a few troubleshooting options. Both of my ArcGIS for Server and SQL Server Express services were not running. It was by luck we found a solution to my problems which are provided in the steps below:

1. The database connection on ArcCatalog was not working so we tried a database connection on SQL Server Management Studio; it was not working either. By doing this, we were sure that the connection issue was not specific to ArcGIS software.
2. Since the database was installed on my local machine, there were not any network issues involved.
3. We went to the Services window and tried to restart the SQL Server service but got the error "Error 1069: The service did not start due to a logon failure.".
4. We found this KB article from Microsoft's website: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282254
5. I opened up the SQL Server Express properties and clicked on the Log On tab and retyped the password for the SQL Server service account.
6. I tried starting the service and just like magic, the database connection was working.
7. We did the same thing with the ArcGIS Server service and this did the trick as well.

After further review, ESRI technical support came to the conclusion that my SQL Server Express is called a Virtual Account on a local computer. Services that run as virtual accounts access network resources by using the credentials of the computer account in the format domain_name\computer_name. When specifying a virtual account to start SQL server, you could leave the password blank. So this means, I didn't need to type anything in for the password of NT Service\MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS (my SQL Server Express log on).

I just thought I would share my findings in case anyone needed it.