SQL SERVER – Unable to See SQL Server Configuration Manager. How to Open it?

I get many emails every day and I do respond to them as soon as I can.  Sometimes they are about the business and sometimes they are from my blog readers who have followed my other blog and need help with something else. Most of the time, I do have a solution for them. In this blog, we would learn about how to open SQL Server Configuration Manager when there is no shortcut in start menu.

One of my blog readers sent below email.

Hi Pinal,
Sorry for the direct email rather. You will not know me, but I have been taking help from you via your blogs for many years. I am sure there are many in the world who are getting benefited from the knowledge which you share via daily blogs. I would like to thank you on behalf of everyone who has been successful due to your blogs.

I wanted one assistance from you as I didn’t see any blog about the problem which I am facing as of today. I have been using SQL Server Configuration Manager to manage SQL Server related services. Today, due to some custom patching from my company, I saw that I don’t have SQL Server Configuration Manager on any of the server. I am not sure where it is gone.

Do you know how to get it back?

Thanks.

WORKAROUND/SOLUTION

I did some search and found that it is a snap-in in MMC. There are multiple ways to open it. Here are the steps

1. Start > Run > MMC
2. It would open below. Choose File > Add/Remove Snap-in.
   
3. Open the snap-in window opens, we should choose “SQL Server Configuration Manager” from the list and hit “Add”
   
4. It should be in the “Selected snap-ins” as seen in the following image.
   

That should be it. Hit OK and you should get SQL Server Configuration Manager.

If you want a shortcut then below is the command line which would open SQL Server Configuration Manager for SQL Server 2017. You can right click and create a new shortcut with below command.

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mmc.exe /32 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\SQLServerManager14.msc

The last piece is the version of SQL Server installed on the machine. Version 14 represents, SQL Server 2017. Here is the version list as of today.

Have you encountered this same issue earlier? Is there any other solution? Please comment and share with others. Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)

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