SQL Client Configuration

There is a great deal of MSDN articles dedicated to describing network communication protocols and how to configure client network configuration for SQL server (Client Network Configuration, Choosing a Network Protocol). However, MSDN seems to fail to mention how to start the network utility on the client, and the fact that there are two different flavors of it (32- and 64-bit).

Here are the executable and paths which you need to launch on the client (e.g. SharePoint servers):

32-bit version:
%SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\cliconfg.exe

64-bit version:
%SystemDrive%\Windows\sysWOW64\cliconfg.exe

Note: SharePoint 2010/2013 servers surprisingly uses 32-bit version configuration and not 64-bit. Nonetheless, it is a good idea to enable client libraries and create aliases for both 32- and 64-bit version.

More helpful articles on the topic:

• Two Ways to Check SQL Aliases for SharePoint
• SQL Best Practices for SharePoint Farm – Configure SQL Alias on all SharePoint Web and Application Servers