Edit

MSSQLSERVER_18482

  • Article

Applies to: SQL Server

Details

Attribute Value
Product Name SQL Server
Event ID 18482
Event Source MSSQLSERVER
Component SQLEngine
Symbolic Name REMLOGIN_INVALID_SITE
Message Text Could not connect to server '%.ls' because '%.ls' is not defined as a remote server. Verify that you have specified the correct server name. %.*ls

Explanation

This error occurs when you try to execute a remote procedure call (RPC) from one server to another (for example, by executing a stored procedure on a remote computer with a statement such as EXEC SERV_REMOTE.pubs..byroyalty). An error message similar to the following is reported to the user

Error 18482: Could not connect to server <SERV_REMOTE> because <SERV_REMOTE> is not defined as a remote server. Verify that you have specified the correct server name.

Cause

This error occurs when SQL Server cannot execute a remote procedure call. This can be caused by an improperly configured local server. To make a remote procedure call, SQL Server first determines who the local server is by looking for the server name with srvid = 0 in sysservers. If an entry with srvid = 0 is not found in sysservers, or if the server name with srvid = 0 belongs to a server name that is different from the local Windows computer name, you will receive the error.

User action

To determine if the local server is configured correctly, examine the srvstatus column in master..sysservers. This value should be 0 for the local server.

For example, suppose your local server was named SERV_LOCAL, the remote server was named SERV_REMOTE, and sysservers contained the following information:

srvid srvstatus srvname srvname
1 2 SERV_LOCAL SERV_LOCAL
2 1 SERV_REMOTE SERV_REMOTE

In the preceding output, SERV_LOCAL is the local server, but it has a srvid of 1; it should be 0. To correct this, follow these steps:

  1. Run sp_dropserver local_server_name, droplogins (in this example, you would run sp_dropserver SERV_LOCAL, droplogins).
  2. Run sp_addserver local_server_name, LOCAL (in this example, you would run sp_addserver SERV_LOCAL, LOCAL).
  3. Stop and restart SQL Server.

After running those steps, the sysservers table should look like the following:

srvid srvstatus srvname srvname
0 0 SERV_LOCAL SERV_LOCAL
2 1 SERV_REMOTE SERV_REMOTE

Note

Server ID (srvid) should be 0 for the local server.

There may be some cases wherein the entries in sysservers table look correct, but when you run select @@servername, it returns NULL. In these scenarios, you should still run through Steps 1 through 3 listed above to fix the issue.

More information

You may receive this error message when installing replication because the installation process makes remote procedure calls between the servers involved in replication.