Cannot find Certificate when configuring IIS bindings

When configuring bindings, IIS list certificates in the personal store.

So when generating a certificate using Powershell or Openssl, make sure the cert is in the Personal store. Then it will show up when configuring SSL bindings in IIS manager.

In order for the browsers to trust the cert, install self-signed certs to the trusted root CA store. But don’t remove it from Personal store, because it’s needed for bindings.

Cannot find or connect to SQL instance showing when connecting to SQL server from SSMS

Checklist

-SQL Browser service is running on the DB server, this one listens to UDP broadcast to tell clients of its presence.

-UDP 1434 is allowed in the firewall of the server(inbound rule), this is so that UDP broadcasts from clients can reach server.

-TCP 1433 and 1434 are allowed in the firewall(inbound rule), this is so that SSMS can connect to SQL server instance.

-TCP and UDP protocols are enabled in SQL Configuration Manager.

-The SQL instance allows remote connections, check this by opening SSMS inside the server, connect to local instance, right click, choose Properties and check the option to allow remote connections.

-There is no IP conflict in the network with another server (if using Virtual machines, check that MAC addresses are different to have different IPs, otherwise SSMS may try to connect to wrong server).

Cloned VirtualBox VMs having same IP addresses

If this happens, turn off the VM, in the settings->Network->Adapter, expand Advanced, and click on the refresh button next to MAC address.

IP addresses are generated by DHCP from MAC addresses. Cloned VMs by default will have the same MAC address as the original VM, so need to change to another one.