Having trouble with SQL Server connection on WebSphere 8.5

Question

I'm having all kinds of trouble getting IBM WebSphere 8.5 to connect to my SQL Server 2012 data source. I have the URL of jdbc:sqlserver://localhost;userName=user;password=password. See the following error (I know it's kind of long):

The test connection operation failed for data source reachingrecovery on server server1 at node MWEISS7X16Node01 with the following exception: java.sql.SQLException: The TCP/IP connection to the host localhost, port 1433 has failed. Error: "Connection refused: connect. Verify the connection properties. Make sure that an instance of SQL Server is running on the host and accepting TCP/IP connections at the port. Make sure that TCP connections to the port are not blocked by a firewall."

Now, the SQL server and WebSphere are running on the same machine, so I don't think it's a firewall issue. I've checked the SQL server properties under "Connections", and it indicates that everything is fine ("Allow remote connections to the server" is checked.)

I'm at a loss to understand why this is happening. Any suggestions? Thx Mimi

Answer 1

I found out what the problem was. I was using SQL Server Management Studio to check on whether it could make TCP/IP connections or not. What I should have been using was SQL Server Configuration Manager. It had a thing on the left called "SQL Server Network Configuration". I clicked on that, and it brought up "Protocols for server instance name". It had a thing on the right (TCP/IP), which indicated it was disabled. I enabled that, restarted the SQL server, and it worked.