RPC Error when trying to start or stop Sql Server Services

Question

I have a ManagedComputer to a remote machine that I am able to enumerate SQL Server 2005 Services but, I cannot start / stop / pause any of them.  I am getting the following error BUT, the RPC Server IS running on the remote machine.

A first chance exception of type 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.FailedOperationException' occurred in Microsoft.SqlServer.SqlWmiManagement.dll

Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.FailedOperationException: StopService failed for Service 'SQLSERVERAGENT'. ---> Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.FailedOperationException: StopService failed for Service 'SQLSERVERAGENT'. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException: The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)

I saw a similar question with 4700+ views and 0 answers.

Come on Microsoft, it's your code.  Someone step up here and help me fix this.

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Steve

Answer 1

Hello Steve,

Thank you to share us the detail error message.

From the error message, we can find following possible causes to lead this kind of issue.

• The Firewall blocks the RPC port. Please check default port 135 for RPC is enabled on the firewall. If not, please try to enable it. Otherwise, you can disable the firewall on both client and server to test it.
• Check the necessary service is enabled on the remote server, such as Windows Management Instrumentation, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper. If not, please start it to see whether the issue is solved.

For more information, please check the following articles.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4494.troubleshooting-the-rpc-server-is-unavailable.aspx

I hope it is helpful to you. If you have any questions about this kind of issue, please let me know.

Regards,

Edward

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Edward Zhu

TechNet Community Support

Answer 2

I am working from home and use a VPN to connect to our servers which in turn allows me to access one of about 400 clients.  I decided to use Remote Desktop to run this tool from there and it worked fine.  It has to be something in one of the firewalls that is blocking my VPN connection from working.  That is a completely different issue and, as long as the code works inside the firewall, I'd consider this closed.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

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Steve