I am having trouble getting a named instance to work with SQL Browser on a
Windows 2003 server.

None of the following troubleshooting steps worked:

I've tried the suggestions in the following post:
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...ows er&rnum=2

The suggustions in that post include:

1.) Checking file permisisons on <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\90\Shared and <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\90\Shared\ASConfig. (In my case D:. Important point for later.)

2.) I've checked that the registry key at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SQL
Browser\AnalysisServiceListener had a value of 1.

3.) I've deleted msmdredir.ini and .bak files in <drive>:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\ASConfig
Restart SQLBrowser and then your named instance.

4.) I've installed and (reinstalled) SQL 2005 SP1.

I've read and re-read the suggestions in the blog post:
http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/edwardm.../26/21447.aspx

The suggestions in the blog post include setting the Port property in SSAS
to a specific port and adding the <Instance> element in the msmdredir.ini
file at <drive>\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\ASConfig path
to point to that port.

None of these steps helped. And then...

Using SysInternals FileMon, I noticed that when I try to connect with SSMS
to the named instance both the processes msdmsrv.exe and sqlbrowser.exe
receive a PATH NOT FOUND error when trying to access the path: "C:\Program
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\ASConfig". The actual path for this
file in my configuration is on the D: drive, not C:. I'm not sure why those
two processes are looking on the C: drive for the ASConfig folder, instead
of D:.

To work around this, I created a copy of the msmdredir.ini file at the
identical path on the C: drive (with the <Instance> element specifying the
specific port) and this worked. I'm able to connect to the named instance
using SSMS. I can't figure out why the msmdsrv and sqlbrowser processes are
looking for the ASConfig folder on C: instead of D:.

I have the named instance working, but can someone please help me clean up
my kludge workaround? Thanks a ton.

-Keith