An administrator attempts to create a new SQL Server type protection plan using the Create Protection Plan wizard. After selecting the SQL Server type plan, on the databases tab, an error occurs, "Unable to connect to SQL server".
The error may also occur after the SQL plan has been created in Archive Manager when viewing plan settings and clicking the databases tab.
To create a protection plan on a remote computer, Archive Manager communicates with the remote computer using the credentials of the account logged onto the Archive Manager server. The administrator should log on with an account that is a member of the Domain Admins security group to ensure proper access to the remote computer to perform a WMI query and create a scheduled task on the remote computer. In addition to these permissions, the SQL type plan must have permission to access the SQL databases on the remote computer. The error occurs because the account logged onto the Archive Manager does not have permission to access the SQL databases.
To resolve the error, grant the account logged onto the Archive Manager server permission to access the SQL databases. Or, ignoring the error, close the error dialog box and continue to create the protection plan with the checkbox checked to protect all online databases without displaying the list of available databases. A third option would be to log onto Archive Manager with a domain account that is known to have access to the SQL databases. For the plan to run successfully, the DATASTOR service account that runs the plan scheduled task must also have permission to access the SQL databases.
To resolve the error message, grant the account logged onto the Archive Manager server permissions to access the SQL databases following the steps below:
1. Log onto the SQL server and connect to the SQL instance using SQL Management Studio. (You can also connect to the SQL instance remotely if SQL Management Studio is installed on another machine).
2. In the left pane, browse to the Security folder, then the Logins folder. Add the account to the list. For the plan to run successfully, the DATASTOR service account that runs the plan scheduled task must also have permission to access the SQL databases. Add the DATASTOR service account here, as well.
3. Return to the Archive Manager server, click on the remote computer in the left pane, select to Create a Protection Plan in the right pane, then choose the SQL type plan. On the databases tab, ensure that the databases are listed, and finish creating the protection plan.
