[SQL] Could not open a connection to SQL Server Error 53 while setting up Linked Server on SQL 2005

When trying to setup Linked Server on SQL 2005, I got [Name Pipe Provider: Could not open a connection to SQL Server [53]] error message.

Error 53 is basically a OS level error which maps to ERROR_BAD_NETPATH (network path not found). Which usually means that the SQL process have no access to remote server you are trying to connect. So here are some thing you may want to check first.

1. Check if your SQL service account has network access.
2. Check if your SQL server is able to resolve the remote server name. If not, add a record to host file, or add an alias for the remote server in SQL configuration Manager.
3. Force using TCP/IP procotol instead of named pipes by prefixing the server name with “tcp:” or by setting protocol order via SQL Configuration Manager

2009/4/29 - There could be an error occur while adding a 32 bit SQL Server to a 64 bit SQL Server as a linked server, in that case, please refer to this kb article.