Invalid Login Error - Network-Related or Instance-Specific

Affected Software/Reports/DLL(s): EQuIS Professional

Affected Software Version: N/A

Symptoms: The following error message may appear when attempting to log into EQuIS Professional.

Invalid Login - Please try again. [A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: TCP Provider, error: 0 - No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.)]

Cause/Details and Resolution/Workaround:

Here are a few reasons for this error along with a resolution:

1.Database offline/unavailable - Confirm the database is not being upgraded or worked on, and that the computer is connected to the Internet.

2.Incorrect URL/database connection - Check for the correct URL.

3.Firewall ports not opened - See the Enterprise TCP / IP Requirements section of the Release Notes for the version of EQuIS Professional. In this section, you can confirm what port should be open for the outbound connection. (Generally, EQuIS 7 requires port 1433 be open to outbound connections for Professional to work correctly and port 443 needs to be open for Enterprise to function.)

4.Your organization is using Azure Private DNS Zones. This error will typically end with "...(provider: TCP Provider, error:0 - No such host is known.)]". - The resolution to this issue is for your IT/DNS team to add a CNAME Private DNS entry for your EQuIS Online Azure SQL Server, using the Azure Private Link address sql-XXXXXXXXXXXX-equisonline-com.database.windows.net pointing to the "dataslice" found when you do an nslookup for the Azure SQL Server => datasliceXX.XXXXXX.database.windows.net. Please note that this dataslice is part of the Azure infrastructure, and can be changed by Microsoft at any time without notice. If your users start getting the above error messages again, we recommend doing an nslookup for sql-XXXXXXXXXXXX-equisonline-com.database.windows.net and using the new dataslice number in that Private DNS CNAME entry.

Step-by-step instructions:

1.Open Command Prompt, and run nslookup SQLSERVERNAME (where sql server name is the FQDN of your Azure SQL Server).

2.Note the dataslicex.azureregion.database.windows.net URL. Copy it for use.

3.Go to your Azure privatelink.database.windows.net DNS Zone and create a Record set.

4.Create a CNAME record set for your Azure SQL Server, pointing to the dataslice from Step 2.

Invalid Login Error - A Network-Related or Instance-Specific Error

Invalid Login Error - A Network-Related or Instance-Specific Error