Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server is disabled or missing

Symptoms

When you attempt to connect to Alloy Discovery, one of these error messages may appear:

[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (SECCreateCredentials()).]SSL Security error

Cannot open the database connection. The OLE DB provider [ProviderName] is missing or installed incorrectly.

Cause

Both errors are due to a disabled (or perhaps missing) Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server (MSOLEDBSQL). This driver is required for Alloy Discovery when the SQL Server hosting the Alloy Discovery database uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 for secure communication.

• [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (SECCreateCredentials()).]SSL Security error — this error occurs when the MSOLEDBSQL driver on your computer is disabled.

  NOTE: This error message is a particular case of this generic error message: "Database connection failed. Please check with your Alloy Discovery administrator that your Database Access Key is valid." To view the particular error, click Details in the Error window.

• Cannot open the database connection. The OLE DB provider ProviderName is missing or installed incorrectly. — this error occurs when the MSOLEDBSQL driver is not installed on your computer.

Resolution

When the MSOLEDBSQL driver is disabled, just enable it (Step 2). When the MSOLEDBSQL driver is missing, install it (Step 1) and then enable (Step 2).

1. Install the MSOLEDBSQL driver on your computer. In most cases, the driver has been already installed automatically. However, you can download it from the Microsoft Download Center at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56730.

2. Enable the MSOLEDBSQL driver on your computer:

   1. Log in to any Alloy Discovery desktop app installed on your computer (for example, the Desktop App or Settings) to reveal the Log in to Alloy Discovery window and click Manage Connections to start the Connection Manager.

   2. Under Database Connection, select the Enable TLS 1.2 support check box.

   3. Click Test Connection to verify the connection.

   4. Click OK to exit the Connection Manager.

More information

Since some known vulnerabilities have been reported against earlier versions of Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.0 and 1.1), Microsoft recommends disabling these outdated TLS versions on your Microsoft SQL Server and using TLS 1.2 for secure communication.

INFO: For details on Microsoft’s recommendations, see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3135244/tls-1-2-support-for-microsoft-sql-server.

By default, Alloy Discovery uses the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) to access SQL Server. This SQLOLEDB driver ships as part of Windows Data Access Components, but it does not support TLS 1.2.

If your SQL Server administrator has followed Microsoft's recommendations and upgraded to TLS 1.2 on the SQL Server, a new OLE DB provider, which is called the "Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server" (MSOLEDBSQL), is required. This driver must be installed and enabled on all computers that access the SQL Server hosting the Alloy Discovery database.

Starting with version 8.4, the Alloy Discovery installer checks for MSOLEDBSQL during the installation or upgrade process, and installs it if necessary. Since we don't know whether you need TLS 1.2 support, the new driver is disabled by default.

INFO: For details on the MSOLEDBSQL driver, see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56730.

Related Information:

Connection Manager

Installation Guide: Enabling TLS 1.2 Support