SQL SERVER – Installation Error – [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified

One of my blog readers sent an email to me asking for assistance. They were trying to patch SQL Server 2005 in the cluster and the setup was failing to patch database services with below error related to data source name.

SQL Server Setup could not connect to the database service for server configuration. The error was: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified Refer to server error logs and setup logs for more information.

If we search for above error, we can see this caused due to various reasons. If it is faced by a developer, then it might be due to incorrect connection string. In our case, it was due to SQL Server setup and there is no connection string involved here.

After looking at various logs, UDL test etc. We found that issue was with SQL Server native client driver. There were multiple old versions of drivers installed on the machine.

WORKAROUND / SOLUTION

To fix this issue, we follow these steps:

• Uninstall SQL Server Native Client component from the Programs and Features (Add/Remove Programs)
• Install Microsoft SQL Server Native client for the version which we are installing. In the above case, it was SQL Server 2005.

After following above, we could install SQL cluster successfully. Have you seen a similar error earlier?

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

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