BUG: Invalid and Irrelevant TCP/IP Keepalive Registry Entries (198166)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SQL Server 6.0
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5

This article was previously published under Q198166

BUG #: 16496 (SQLBUG_65)

SYMPTOMS

The following two registry entries are created in Windows NT registry when SQL Server is installed:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\TCPKeepCnt

   -and-

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\TCPKeepTries

These entries are invalid and irrelevant to current versions of SQL Server and Windows NT server, and can be safely ignored.

CAUSE

The SQL Server Setup program puts these entries in the registry during the setup procedure to ensure proper TCP/IP network communications on earlier versions of Microsoft Windows NT Server products. They are no longer relevant to the current versions of Windows NT Server.

RESOLUTION

Because Windows NT simply ignores these parameters in the registry, the existence of these parameters will NOT cause any problems.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in SQL Server versions 6.0 and 6.5.

MORE INFORMATION

Two new TCP/IP keep alive parameters have been introduced to replace these parameters. They are KeepaliveInterval and KeepaliveTime, in the same registry location, but they are hidden by default. For normal SQL Server operations, there is no need to adjust these parameters. If it becomes necessary to adjust these parameters, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

120642 : TCP/IP and NBT Configuration Parameters for Windows 2000 or Windows NT

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	3/14/2005
Keywords:	kbBug kbnofix KB198166