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In my farm, I was using the standard 1433 port for SharePoint to communicate with SQL. Our project lead came down with the order to change the SQL port to a non-standard port from 1433.

I went into SQL Server Configuration Manager and made the change to use the new port rather than 1433. I then went to my SharePoint server and ran cliconfg.exe and created the alias for the SQL server just the same as I set it up on the SQL server. The SQL server is using the new port now.

However, I rebooted the SharePoint server and it can no longer connect to SQL. Running the config wizard results in the "failure to connect to database server" error. In the configuration wizard, under "Specify Configuration Database Settings", I put the server IP:port, but it doesn't accept that either.

Is there another location that I need to change in order to force SharePoint to NOT use 1433? Our boundary protection folks verified that traffic is still leaving on 1433 from the SharePoint server, but not being accepted by SQL.

I've done numerous searches on this site, and others, and nothing has helped so far. I found this question (and the links given in the answer) to be very helpful, but so far nothing has helped: Change SQL Server Port for existing SharePoint 2010 environment - Howto

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  • Can you connect using odbc32 from the same machine that sharepoint is on?
    – Hugh Wood
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 18:57
  • Thank you, Mr. Wood. I'm not certain on how to do that, unfortunately. I made a mistake and wasn't using the alias that I had created for the sql server, when inputting the sql server's name into the configuration wizard. It accepts the alias and retrieves the database name for my farm, but still fails at step 3 though ;-( There's not much in the logs for it, either.
    – SalarianEngineer
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 19:36
  • If you are more familiar you can connect though excel, if you have a machine with visibility you can create a data connection in there.
    – Hugh Wood
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 19:49
  • I connected through Visual Studio 2010, if that works, and was able to perform a minor LINQ query on a Forms database that I have in there.
    – SalarianEngineer
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 19:52
  • In that case it's definitely on the SP configuration side, on a train at the moment, so I would just recommend looking up one of the migration guides for SP because they explain how to change SQL Server over.
    – Hugh Wood
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 19:55

1 Answer 1

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Strange it doesn't work. Just to be sure: you don't have to change anything in SharePoint. Just create an alias with the name SharePoint is referring to, but pointing to the server with the new server port:

enter image description here

In this example, SharePoint thinks it's still connecting to DBSERVER at port 1433 but it actually connects to 123456 without knowing it.

This article more or less details the same steps:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607733(v=office.14).aspx

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  • Actually, it turns out that I was over-thinking the situation...I was using the server name for the Config wizard, when I should have been using the ALIAS for the SQL server. Now, it retrieves SharePoint_Config as the database that it's looking for, yet when it runs through the steps, it fails on task 3 of 9 (Connecting to the configuration database), and says "Configuration Failed", "Failed to connect to the configuration database. An exception of type System.ArgumentNullException was thrown. Additional Exception Information: value cannot be null. Parameter name: Service".
    – SalarianEngineer
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 19:34
  • If I keep the port to 1433, it works. But as soon as I change the port, it stops working. The new port is allowed through the proxy/firewall, but SharePoint doesn't seem to be sending traffic on the new port, just 1433. Is there another location other than cliconfg.exe that requires input in order to tell sharepoint to communicate somewhere other than 1433?
    – SalarianEngineer
    Commented Dec 20, 2012 at 18:08

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