Errors during fresh install of vCenter Server 5.5 in relation to SQL database

[jkoelker]

I am doing a fresh install of vCenter Server 5.5 on a brand new Windows 2008 R2 server. The database for this install is pointed at a Windows 2003 SP2 32 bit server. I have installed the SQL Native Client of 10.0 on the vCenter Server 64 bit server and then I was able to make my ODBC 64-bit DSN connection. The vCenter Server install was able to recognize it fine but after the install finally got going it errored out on the database with the following error:

Error 25003.Setup failed to create the vCenter Server repository. The most common reasons for this failure are:

-The database is installed in Case Insensitive mode.

- The database is remote and the Database client version does not match the Database version. If this problem continues to persist refer to KB 1003960 for additional help.

Well I know the client version and the database version don't match. The sql native client on the sql server is 9.00.5000.00 and the version on the vCenter Server is 10.50.1600.1.

I know that this version of vCenter is compatible with a 32-bit sql server 2005 installation on a 32 bit 2003 server.

I'm not overly familiar if they want me to upgrade the sql native client on the sql server but that wouldn't be compatible with the version of sql server on that server and there are multiple database for other applications on this server so I don't want to jump into something like that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[cflath24]

Is the database patched to at least SP4?  Also, I am not much of a DBA, but I am pretty sure that version 10.x of the native client is the SQL 2008 Native client.  If you are using SQL 2005, I am guessing you want to install the SQL 2005 native client on your vCenter server and create the ODBC connections using that.  SQL 2005 Native Client download: Download Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - April 2006 from Official Microsoft Download C...

[jkoelker]

Yes, it is SP4. I just installed that service pack the other night. The sql server is windows 2003 sp2 32 bit with sql server 2005 sp4 on it. The vCenter Server is windows 2008 R2 64-bit. It has a 64-bit DSN connected to the database that I was able to test successfully in ODBC. The initial setup for vCenter Server finds the 64-bit DSN so I know that is fine. The only thing it mentions potentially is that the 2008 server has a newer version of sql native client compared to that of the SQL server. In the requirements of vCenter Server it doesn't mention anything about a minimum version of native client just that the SQL server has to be at least sql server 2005 sp4 and 32 bit is supported.

[cflath24 · Accepted solution]

I would install the SQL 2005 native client and give that a shot.

[jkoelker]

I finally was able to find that version and installed it but it still errored out but gave me the same message. After reading through the logs, I found that it was not liking the password and I googled what it said. VMWare indicated that they don't like special characters in their passwords associated with the database, so I created a new user and changed the owner on that database and then it worked fine. I believe the native client was still a partial fix. Thanks for the help.