With the Developer edition of SQL Server 2005 RTM being the first available on the MSDN Subscriber site, a number of people have installed Team Foundation Server with SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition. This configuration requires an additional step during the setup to enable remote TCP/IP connections. This is a known requirement but it seems people are still missing this.

To enable remote TCP connections in SQL Sever 2005 Developer edition (and express edition), follow these extra steps…

Step one. After installing SQL Server 2005 Developer edition, the final screen of the install wizard will look like the following image. Click on the “Surface Area Configuration tool” hyperlink.

Step two. When the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration screen appears, click on the “Surface Area Configuration and Connections” hyperlink

Step three. Select “Remote Connection” in the tree on the left of the dialog box then click Local and Remote connections on the right. The first option (Using TCP/IP only) will automatically be selected.

You should then click OK and restart the Database Engine. I usually reboot here just to “keep things clean” if that makes any sense.