How to Resolve: Cannot Connect to WMI Provider (SQL Server Configuration Manager)

In some cases where you might try to launch SQL Server Configuration Manager, you might get the error message: Cannot connect to WMI provider. You do not have permission or the server is unreachable. Note that you can only manage SQL Server 2005 and later servers with SQL Server Configuration Manager.
Invalid namespace [0x8004100e]

 

Is SQL Server Configuration Manager Really Needed?

Easy answer: of course it is!

Even though you can still control SQL Server services via Windows Services (services.msc), in order to have full control, you still need SQL Server Configuration Manager.

For example, if you want to set up SQL Server in order to use SSL certificate you need SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Moreover, if you want to change the network settings for your SQL Server services, again, you will need SQL Server Configuration Manager.

There are more examples that can justify the usefulness of SQL Server Configuration Manager but, I’m pretty sure you got the picture 🙂

 

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Why I Got this Error Message?

If you performed several installations and uninstallations of SQL Server components on the machine, then under certain circumstances thi might cause the abovementioned issue with SQL Server Configuration Manager.

 

How to Get SQL Server Configuration to Work Again

As per Microsoft’s official support documentation, you can easily fix this issue.

So, in order to fix the issue, you can open an elevated command prompt (Run as Administrator) and execute the below command, after of course you replace “number” with the version of SQL Server in terms of number.

mofcomp "%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\number\Shared\sqlmgmproviderxpsp2up.mof"

 

In order to find the right version number, please check the below table:

SQL Server Version	Version Number
2022	160
2019	150
2017	140
2016	130
2014	120
2012	110
2008/R2	100
2005	90

 

So, if for example, you want to fix the SQL Server 2016 Configuration Manager, you would run the below command in an elevated command prompt (Run as Administrator):

mofcomp "%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Shared\sqlmgmproviderxpsp2up.mof"

 

 

An Alternative Way to Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager

Last but not least, there is an alternative approach to start SQL Server Configuration Manager. Again, from the command line, you can run the corresponding command for each SQL Server version as provided in the below table:

SQL Server Version	Command
2022	SQLSERVERMANAGER16.msc
2019	SQLSERVERMANAGER15.msc
2017	SQLSERVERMANAGER14.msc
2016	SQLSERVERMANAGER13.msc
2014	SQLSERVERMANAGER12.msc
2012	SQLSERVERMANAGER11.msc
2008/R2	SQLSERVERMANAGER10.msc
2005	SQLSERVERMANAGER9.msc

 

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