FIX: SQL Server Browser service periodically does not respond to incoming requests

The SQL Server Browser service for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 periodically does not respond to incoming requests.

If you try to connect to the database engine instance, the connection fails when this issue occurs. Additionally, the following error messages are received or logged:

• You receive the following error message on the client:
  
  A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)
  
• The following error messages are logged in the event log several times in a second:
  
  • The SQLBrowser service was unable to process a client request (Event ID 8)
  • The SQLBrowser processing of requests against a particular IP address has encountered a critical error. Processing of requests on this address has been halted (event ID 14)
  
  
• You receive the following error message if you use built-in diagnostics (BID) data access tracing:
  
  <CSsrp::SSRPWorkerThread|ERR|RET> worker thread terminated: 0{WINERR}

Note To recover from this issue, you have to restart the SQL Server Browser service.

Note The fix for SQL Server 2008 is currently not available. See the "Workaround" section to work around this issue in SQL Server 2008.

Cumulative update information

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 14 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1. For more information about this cumulative update package, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 fix release. Microsoft recommends that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 4 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2. For more information about this cumulative update package, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 fix release. Microsoft recommends that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 hotfixes are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 hotfix to an installation of SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

SQL Server 2008 R2

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 7. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package for SQL Server 2008 R2, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 R2 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 1 for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods:

• Disable IPv6 components.
  
  For more information about how to disable IPv6 components, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  
  929852  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852/ ) How to disable certain Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) components in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008
• Use an alias on the node to hardcode the port for the local instances of SQL Server.
• Hardcode the port for the local instances of SQL Server in client applications that are affected.
• Disable applications that frequently send requests to the SQL Server Browser service locally.
  
  For example, disable some local backup applications that frequently send requests to the SQL Server Browser service.