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Hanalei, Hawaii 9/2/2010
438 Posts and Counting

SQL Server SSL Error: ConnectionOpen (SECDoClientHandShake())

Saturday, October 15, 2005 -

Wow, this one sucked! It dropped my SQL Service completely and ALL of my sites went offline (except for my blog here, which runs on XML - good job guys!).

The problem, it turns out, is very specific: if you have installed an SSL certificate for your machine that has expired, this error will occur. More specifically - if you have used SelfSSL and used your machine's name as the issuer, you're in for trouble. If you have SQL installed on the same box and the cert expires (which it does by default after 30 days) then you will see the above error.

The fix is pretty simple - remove the certificates from the machine store (using the MMC with the certificates snap-in for your computer) and then restart SQL.

What an amazingly stupid bug!

Related

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Rod Carr - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - Thank you! Same problem. Don't know if I would have thought of that. I reissued using a 10 year cert using
selfssl /v:3650. Should take care of this problem for a while...
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Ragged - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - This is the exact problem we are experiencing having used SSL - good to know you fixed.

The problem we have now, is trying to work out which certificates are SSL and which are there from before.

Would you be kind enough to provide some guidelines on this? It would be immensely useful info for a lot of people who find themselves in this sticky position.
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Ragged - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - This is the exact problem we are experiencing having used SSL - good to know you fixed.

The problem we have now, is trying to work out which certificates are SSL and which are there from before.

Would you be kind enough to provide some guidelines on this? It would be immensely useful info for a lot of people who find themselves in this sticky position.
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sondlerd - Sunday, July 29, 2007 - great post... i have been waisting time with this issue.

thanks!!
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Sri - Thursday, October 22, 2009 - great post!! your solution resolved my issue - Thank You..
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Patrick Glaudemans - Friday, November 13, 2009 - Yes, great post. Where did this bug came from? A security update??
Anyway, it's fixed now - Thanks