Error: "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred"

This support note applies to:

AE Practice Manager (NZ)
AE Practice Manager (AU)

These instructions require technical expertise

Make sure you know what you're doing and are using one of the products listed. If you're not sure, ask your IT professional or MYOB.

Article ID: 29897

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establish a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections.

There are two causes for this error:

SQL services are stopped on the SQL server; or
Incorrect server name in the lookup.xml.

To restart the SQL server

Restart the SQL Services on the SQL server. Found under Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrator Tools > Services.

Click on the heading Startup Type to see all the Automatic services together. Then restart Automatic services that have been stopped for example, SQL Server (MSSQL) or Microsoft SQL Server.

To find the name of your SQL server

On your server desktop follow the menu path Start > Settings > Control Panel > System.
Select Computer Name tab and note down the information in the Full Computer Name field.
The name is everything that appears before the first dot for example, server2.myob, the name in this instance would be server2.

To edit the lookup.xml file

On your server (where the AE Practice Manager (AE PM) server program is installed), click Start and select Run. The Run screen appears.
Type c:\Program Files\MYOB\Central\Deploy in the Open field and click OK, where: c:\Program Files\MYOB\VPM\Central\Deploy is the location of the file lookup.xml. Windows Explorer opens.
Right-click on lookup.xml and select Copy. The file is copied.
Right-click on a blank area of the screen and select Paste. The file Copy of lookup.xml is saved to the same directory.
Right-click on the file lookup.xml and from the Open With menu, select Notepad. The Lookup.xml - Notepad screen appears.
Edit the DataSource=<server name> to the server name identified above, and from the File menu, select Save. The changes are saved.