20091103

Windows 7 64 bit and SQL Server cliconfg

I recently did a wipe and Windows 7 install.  Installed all my dev tools, then tried connecting to some SQL Servers, local and remote, local worked fine.  I added some remote servers to my cliconfg by running (windows run dialog) 'cliconfg' it brought up the familiar server alias configuration tool, so I added my servers.  Then I tried logging into some of them, no luck.  Totally confused.

Turns out there are two cliconfg dialogs, a 32 bit and a 64 bit one, I had been getting to the 64 bit one, but my sql server management studio had been using the values from the 32 bit one.  Found the 32 bit one in "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cliconfg.exe" started using it, and everything worked, still pretty annoying, I wish they would at least warn you, "oh hey, by the way, there are actually two cliconfgs"

Kind of silly.

*Edited, I had my cliconfg locations mixed up, I had assumed the one found in the folder referencing the number 64 would contain the 64 bit version.  This is wrong, though I remain confused because my brain refuses to believe the System32 folder on 64 bit windows would contain the x64 exe and the SysWOW64 directory would contain the x86 exe.  Thanks to Niels Grove-Rasmussen for the catch.

8 comments:

  1. thank you! it helped me a lot!

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  2. Sweet! Now I won't have to resort to pulling my hair.

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  3. Thanks, you just saved me hours of research.

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  4. Great observation.
    Please notice that the 64-bit build is default on 64-bit Windows and that the 32-bit build is placed in %windir%\SysWOW64\cliconfg.exe.
    Thank you for the hint on the difference in behavior.

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  5. Ah! Thanks! A lot of time saved! :-)

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  6. Great, many thanks

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  7. Thanks Molson, your post really helped me!

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