How to "Add Databse Server" and "Add Database Connection"

[BrianKlawinski]

Hello,

     I will admit, I am a bit green when it comes to ArcGIS for Server and ArcSDE, but I have gone through all the documentation I could find, and blogs from non-Esri sources, and cannot find an answer for 10.1 that works, and it may be that I am missing a step along the way.

What I need: 
To be able to add the ArcServer/SDE instance from AWS to ArcGIS for Desktop on my local machine via "Add Databse Server" and/or "Add Database Connection".

What I have:
ArcGIS Server 10.1 and ArcSDE (SQL Server) on Amazon Web Services
I am able to connect to to the ArcGIS Server via the "Add ArcGIS Server" method.

What I have tried:
Everything I could think of.
I can connect to the SDE fine on the AWS machine.
Add Database Server - I tried <IP address>\MSSQLSERVER and <IP address>\sqlexpress
Add Database Connection -  Platform - SQL Server
Add Database - Instance - I have tried variations of the server url and the ip address and the dynamic dns
Add Database - Authentication - I've tried to, but I think i need to use "database" and have entered the Administrator info here.
I never get a list of databases (should be EGDB and geodata).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[EnriqueLawler]

Make sure the instance service is running in SQL Server Configuration Manager. Also, some people use <ip address>/SQLSERVER as the instance. I doubt the latter is the problem but it's worth a shot.

[KyleMorgan]

Hello,

     I will admit, I am a bit green when it comes to ArcGIS for Server and ArcSDE, but I have gone through all the documentation I could find, and blogs from non-Esri sources, and cannot find an answer for 10.1 that works, and it may be that I am missing a step along the way.

What I need: 
To be able to add the ArcServer/SDE instance from AWS to ArcGIS for Desktop on my local machine via "Add Databse Server" and/or "Add Database Connection".

What I have:
ArcGIS Server 10.1 and ArcSDE (SQL Server) on Amazon Web Services
I am able to connect to to the ArcGIS Server via the "Add ArcGIS Server" method.

What I have tried:
Everything I could think of.
I can connect to the SDE fine on the AWS machine.
Add Database Server - I tried <IP address>\MSSQLSERVER and <IP address>\sqlexpress
Add Database Connection -  Platform - SQL Server
Add Database - Instance - I have tried variations of the server url and the ip address and the dynamic dns
Add Database - Authentication - I've tried to, but I think i need to use "database" and have entered the Administrator info here.
I never get a list of databases (should be EGDB and geodata).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I assume you are hitting public ip and not internal aws ip right? Also, do you have sql ports open for external use in aws security console?

[BrianKlawinski]

The instance is running, I can connect to it on the AWS machine when I remote desktop in.

[BrianKlawinski]

I assume you are hitting public ip and not internal aws ip right? Also, do you have sql ports open for external use in aws security console?

I am using the IP Address found in the EC2 URL (ec2-##-###-###-##.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com).
I have have allowed inbound connections on the ArcGIS Server Security Group for MS SQL (port 1433).

[BrianKlawinski]

I just realized I didn't include this in my first post, I am using SQL Server Express.

[BryanChastain]

I'm having an identical issue. I can confirm that the port is open and is pingable from my local machine, but my local ArcCatalog can't seem to connect to it via either Add Database Server or Add Database Connection.

Any advice?

[KimPeter]

Are you using the 10.1 final Esri AMIs?  If so, those have named instances of SQL Server Express.  SQL Server named instances use dynamic ports, which means you can't be sure of which port it will use.  You'd need to switch to using specific port to be able to successfully open the correct port.  See this Microsoft article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177440%28v=sql.105%29.aspx

Hope this helps. 🙂

[BryanChastain]

I did make those changes, which I'm glad you told me about, but it still didn't solve the issue.

I think I figured it out though - it seems like my university is blocking outgoing connections on that port for some reason. I was able to connect from home just fine. It doesn't really solve my problem though. Is it possible to set up ArcGIS to connect via non-standard ports?

[KimPeter]

You can create a database connection to the geodatabase, specifying the port with the instance name. For example, if you set your SQL Server Express instance to listen on port 18200, type:

<ELB_IP_address>\sqlexpress,18200