I just built a new machine with Windows 10 Pro and Sql Server Express 2014 (12.1.4100) - installation had no errors.

Everything works fine except: ssms will not browse for network servers.  When I click the network servers tab NO network servers are found. There are 2 other servers on the network - both running Sql Server Express 2012 (11.0.5343).

From either of the 2 other servers, ssms will browse & find the new machine plus the other server.

Win10 machine configuration: TCP/IP, Named Pipes, & Shared Memory are all enabled. Sql Server Browser service is running. Firewall is disabled for both private & public networks.

From the Win10 machine, ssms will connect to both of the other servers using either: IP\SqlExpress or MachineName\SqlExpress.

Another clue: I have several c# applications that use SMO.EnumAvailableServers. When these apps are run on the Win10 machine, NO servers are found. When these apps are run on the other 2 servers, all the network servers are found.

Any help will be much appreciated - Joe

Hello Joe,

Why do you need to "browse" for other SQL Server, just enter the name to connect to?

Olaf, you are quite correct; I can enter the machine name of the other servers. However, browsing is supposed to actually work. If other users have this problem, they may very well need browsing capability.

The lack of browsing is the reason my c# apps fail which use SMO.EnumAvailableServers to find servers on the network. In these apps, entering the name of a server is not an option without significant software re-write and re-deployment.

Hello Joe,

The Information, on which machine a SQL Server is running, is provided by UDP protocol. The detailed information about SQL Server's and it's state is fetch via WMI; see Configure WMI to Show Server Status in SQL Server Tools

I enabled WMI for my user name on both the Win10 machine and 1 of the other servers hoping that would allow the Win10 machine to browse. No good luck - problem is still there.

I installed Sql Server 2014 Express on the Win 8.1 machine that was running Sql Server 2012 Express (after uninstalling the 2012 version).

SSMS network server browsing is still broken or else configuration of 2014 is quite different from 2012.

Does anyone else have 2014 installed where ssms will browse for network servers? I know my 2 data points are a very small sample size.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188200(v=sql.120).aspx

Check your Browser service in  configuration manager

Sql Server Browser is running - I see its process id & see it in the list of processes via Task Manager.

I wrote a small console app in c# as a test case using SMO.EnumAvailableSqlServers. If I target .Net Framework 3.5, all the network servers are found. If I target any 4.x Framework, none of the network servers are found.

Apparently the problem is NOT a Sql Server 2014 configuration issue and probably not a Windows configuration issue.

I believe Microsoft has a .Net Framework problem!!

 

                   

• Edited by jbm417 7 hours 27 minutes ago