Recover registered servers in SQL Server Management Studio 2012

Question

My computer died so it's be reinstalled.

Previously I had SQL Server 2008 R2 installed. On the new system I have SQL Server 2012.

I have the old RegSrvr.xml file (that contains the list of registered SQL Servers).

How do I get the server list from 2008 R2 into 2012?

Update: When doing Local Server Groups -> Tasks -> Import and choose the RegSrvr.xml file, click OK it's says "The import was successfull" - but no servers or folders has been added and the RegSrvr.xml file for the 2012 installation has not been modified

Sample from xml file

 <document>
  <docinfo>
    <aliases>
      <alias>/RegisteredServersStore/ServerGroup/DatabaseEngineServerGroup/ServerGroup/Company1/RegisteredServer/stage</alias>
    </aliases>
    <sfc:version DomainVersion="1" />
  </docinfo>
  <data>
    <RegisteredServers:RegisteredServer xmlns:RegisteredServers="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/RegisteredServers/2007/08" xmlns:sfc="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/sfc/serialization/2007/08" xmlns:sml="http://schemas.serviceml.org/sml/2007/02" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
      <RegisteredServers:Parent>
        <sfc:Reference sml:ref="true">
          <sml:Uri>/RegisteredServersStore/ServerGroup/DatabaseEngineServerGroup/ServerGroup/Company1</sml:Uri>
        </sfc:Reference>
      </RegisteredServers:Parent>
      <RegisteredServers:Name type="string">stage.server.dk</RegisteredServers:Name>
      <RegisteredServers:Description type="string" />
      <RegisteredServers:ServerName type="string">stage.server.dk</RegisteredServers:ServerName>
      <RegisteredServers:UseCustomConnectionColor type="boolean">false</RegisteredServers:UseCustomConnectionColor>
      <RegisteredServers:CustomConnectionColorArgb type="int">-986896</RegisteredServers:CustomConnectionColorArgb>
      <RegisteredServers:ServerType type="ServerType">DatabaseEngine</RegisteredServers:ServerType>
      <RegisteredServers:ConnectionStringWithEncryptedPassword type="string">server=stage.server.dk;uid=username;password=AQAAANCMnd8BFdERjHoAwE/Cl+sBAAAAegY4QOvPGEGcK2Xdr+jDjQQAAAACAAAAAAADZgAAwAAAABAAAADesdxAGO4GO879z1yS2DZeAAAAAASAAACgAAAAEAAAAGAvgtRJfPRL/puHnREmKu8YAAAAUxRIQVDZHywb7rOYL9MRqG0B2Jvi8kyfFAAAANs53tVPbVux2j56oRU/2oGtmQc9;pooling=false;packet size=4096;multipleactiveresultsets=false</RegisteredServers:ConnectionStringWithEncryptedPassword>
      <RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType type="CredentialPersistenceType">PersistLoginNameAndPassword</RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType>
    </RegisteredServers:RegisteredServer>
  </data>
</document>

Answer 1

If your RegSrvr.xml contains a "password=....;" in <RegisteredServers:ConnectionStringWithEncryptedPassword> section, replace ";uid=...;password=...;" with ";trusted_connection=true;"

In the same file, replace:

<RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType type="CredentialPersistenceType">PersistLoginNameAndPassword</RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType>

with:

<RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType type="CredentialPersistenceType">PersistLoginName</RegisteredServers:CredentialPersistenceType>

Now the server registration will try to use Windows Authentication. Once the Registered Servers are loaded, you can go back and edit the registrations to use your SQL Authentication information.

Answer 2

As an addition to the above answer. Another solution that was easier to use is this :

Importing registered servers

1. On the SQL Server 2005 system, shut down SSMS and copy out the files in this location: “%appdata%\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Shell\RegSrvr.xml”

2. Now copy those files to the same location where you installed SQL Server 2008.

3. Open SSMS 2008 and right-click Local Server Groups in the Registered Servers window Choose Tasks | Previously Registered Servers

For 2014, after I replaced the RegSrvr.xml file with my 2012 copy and launched SSMS, all of the registered servers reappeared without using the Previously Registered Servers task.