Determine whether SQL Server exists

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

| Using the "test connection" approach is like picking up the phone to see
if
| there is dialtone. The second you hang up the proverbial beer truck can
hit
| the phone pole outside and cut you off. I suggest robust exception
handlers
| to deal with the stuff that happens when connecting. This is why the
| "Getting Connected" chapter in my new book is 70 or so pages long (IIRC).
|
| --
| ____________________________________

Oh no please, not a beer truck :-(
Any idea when the book will hit the streets?

Willy.

 

[William \(Bill\) Vaughn]

Nov 6th at the Connections conference in Las Vegas. I'm leasing the Goodyear
blimp...

--
____________________________________
William (Bill) Vaughn
Author, Mentor, Consultant
Microsoft MVP
INETA Speaker
www.betav.com/blog/billva
www.betav.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
__________________________________

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Bill,

A pity that the transport cost from that book with so much pages with
information is probably to expensive for us in the Benelux to buy.

Cor

 

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

Benelux? "too expensive ??" you are talking like the average Dutchman (or
should I say: like an "Hollander" a native inhabitant of Holland), however,
keep in mind that not all Benelux inhabitants are Dutchman

Willy.


| Bill,
|
| A pity that the transport cost from that book with so much pages with
| information is probably to expensive for us in the Benelux to buy.
|
| Cor
|
| "William (Bill) Vaughn" <[email protected]> schreef in bericht
| | > Nov 6th at the Connections conference in Las Vegas. I'm leasing the
| > Goodyear blimp...
| >
| > --
| > ____________________________________
| > William (Bill) Vaughn
| > Author, Mentor, Consultant
| > Microsoft MVP
| > INETA Speaker
| > www.betav.com/blog/billva
| > www.betav.com
| > Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
| > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
| > rights.
| > __________________________________
| >
| > | >>
| >> | >> | Using the "test connection" approach is like picking up the phone to
| >> see
| >> if
| >> | there is dialtone. The second you hang up the proverbial beer truck
can
| >> hit
| >> | the phone pole outside and cut you off. I suggest robust exception
| >> handlers
| >> | to deal with the stuff that happens when connecting. This is why the
| >> | "Getting Connected" chapter in my new book is 70 or so pages long
| >> (IIRC).
| >> |
| >> | --
| >> | ____________________________________
| >>
| >> Oh no please, not a beer truck :-(
| >> Any idea when the book will hit the streets?
| >>
| >> Willy.
| >>
| >>
| >
| >
|
|

 

[William \(Bill\) Vaughn]

Cor, I will send one to you if you'll send me your address (privately).

--
____________________________________
William (Bill) Vaughn
Author, Mentor, Consultant
Microsoft MVP
INETA Speaker
www.betav.com/blog/billva
www.betav.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup so that others can benefit.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
__________________________________

 

[_DD]

. In my opinion is it only needed to
| see if the data on the DataBase server is reachable. For that Michael's
| solution as first stated is in my opinion more than enough,

Which was exactly my answer, all I did was answering both of OP's questions:

Q1 ... testing validity of a SQL connection string ...
A. use SqlConnect.Open
Q2 ... to keep the timeout low...
A. set the connetionstring "Connect Timeout" parameter to a lower value.

The rest was just a technical chat with Bill.

Note that I don't necessarily agree with the OP to add a "test connection"
in an end-user's application (end-users should not test connections).

Sorry about the late reply. Posting problems.

I'm not sure that the "Test Connection" will be available to final end
users, but there are enough potential problems that having the "Test
Button" is important during early phases.

There are two things that I was trying to address:

The timout is unnecessarily long. The program stalls out while the
connect times out.

There is insufficient info returned to analyze the problem.

While the release version may end up just going dead for a while (as
it appears to the user), I would like to avoid that, and provide more
coherent information on how to correct the failure.

I liked the "slow down" error message when getting hit by the bread
truck, Bill. <g> That was actually a good analogy.