Service not starting after fresh install of SQL2012 and SmartConnector

[LucasHawk]

I just installed SQL2012 Express and SmartConnector. SmartConnector service is not starting, and provides the following error:

I found the following post, and checked the logs:

SmartConnectorService  can not start

The .log file attached contains the info. It appears there was some user/password snafu, and I am unsure how that gets established.

For some background, I have attempted this several times, working on this for the past 8 hours. I have Installed and uninstalled this 4 times, using SQL2017 (which I then realized was not supported), SQL2016 (which had this same problem of not starting the service), and now SQL2012. I just clicked through the basic, default SQL installation (including adding a check to 'LocalDB'), then followed the 'Installation and Configuration Guide'. I did the 'Complete Install', and set this exactly as seen, making the password 'admin':

I am ridiculously unsure how the DB should be configured, and the install guide is unclear. Would it be possible to get a set of queries to configure SQL as it should be? Is there some better guide for the SQL part of this?

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EDIT:

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I got this working. I did a few things; I am not sure which one actually worked.

First off, I used the SqlExpress Server Type in the SmartConnector install, instead of LocalDB. (I had both installed, but I guess LocalDB wasnt wanting to work...) I used 'Windows Implicit' Authentication (just trying to develop things ATM), and it started throwing a new error in the logs, and actually installed the DB, but it still seemed to be a permissions problem.

I found this post - iis - SQL Server Login error: Login failed for user 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM' - Stack Overflow  - (ALL HAIL StackOverflow!!), and made the 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM' user the sysadmin of the DB. This FINALLY got the service running when I then reinstalled SmartConnector. However, when I browsed to 'localhost:8082', it was no dice.

So, I thne remembered seeing this post at some point during the day - Enable remote connections for SQL Server Express 2012 - Stack Overflow  - (Seriously. HAIL. THEM.) I started the SQL browser service, and I am now about to attempt a login.

Now that step 1 is done, maybe I will not have to come back. Maybe. Only 60 pages of install and config to go. (One can hope...)

[JeffBowman]

Hi Lucas,

I am glad you were able to work through your install issues on your own!

Let me see if I can shed some light onto what you were experiencing.

• SQL 2017 isn't official supported, but I can say that I have used it with no problems, and am currently doing on on my personal computer, so I don't believe that was your problem.
• If you are just setting this up for yourself, I would recommend enabling the 'sa' user in your SQL installation, and setting a password. Then using 'SQL Server' authentication type in the installer and using the 'sa' username and password configured above.
• When using the Windows login authentication types (both implicit and explicit), the logged in user (in the case of implicit), and the specified user (in the case of explict) must have at least 'public' and 'dbcreator' roles in the SQL server installation. This is mentioned in the install guide.

The next part of it, where after using 'Windows implicit' credentials and then receiving the permissions error for NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, after looking into it, I actually think that this part of it is a bug in the installer. When using the Windows implicit login types, the installer should be setting up the System user permissions in the database, and making sure the SYSTEM user doesn't need elevated SQL permissions besides 'db_owner' on the SmartConnector database. In inspecting the installer code, although the code that does this exists, it is not being executed when the installer runs.

Overall though! I think you may have gotten over the hardest part (harder than it should have been for sure, the installer will be fixed going forward.) Once the service is installed, running, and licensed, I hope understanding the configuration will be more straight forward for you!

Thank you for reaching out!

Regards,

-Jeff