SharePoint - Reinstalled SQL... now "Cannot connect to the configuration database"

I would appreciate the wisdom of the masses bailing me out for a stupid mistake.  I am a generalist "jack of all trades / master of none" and am now over my head on something.  We are running Win Server 2003x64 with SQL Server 2005x64 on one server, and Win Server 2003x64 and WSS 3.0 on another server.

We were reinstalling a third party appliction, and as part of the process they asked if anything else was using SQL to which I replied "No".  So we uninstalled SQL2005, and then reinstalled it.  Of couse my heart jumped into my throat when someone came in 10 minutes later and told me that our WSS 3.0 was down.  D'oh!  (I'll wait while you stop laughing.)

I readded the databases to SQL using the SQL server management studio, but am getting "Cannot connect to the configuration database." on the client side.  I have;
- restarted WSS
- restarted SQL
- reran the "SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard" accepting the defaults
... without any success.

The symptons are;
- "Cannot connect to the configuration database." when browsing to the sharepoint site.
- Getting a failure audit event 18456 on the SQL server Application Event log saying Login Failed for user "Domain\WSSServerName$" (Client: 192.168.xx.xx)
- Getting a SQL database login failed error on the Application Event Log on the WSSServer

When we reinstalled SQL, we did select a different username and password than had be used before, but I can't seem to locate where I should change things.

Again... any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

1. Have you tried using the configuration wizard to disconnect from the farm and reconnect again?

2. You could also disconnect and create a new config farm. If you have been backing up using stsamd you can then run stsadm -o restore (if your backups are in place then this is your best bet)

PS: You might wanna backup your SQL databases first before you start playing around. All the best!!!

Thanks for the prompt reply, and I hope you’re still following this thread.  I had to concentrate on the other software rollout so didn’t have time to work on the sharepoint failure.

 

I have tried using the config wizard and have successfully rejoined the farm, but still get the “Cannot connect to the configuration database.” message.

 

I don’t have a current formal backup (d'oh) so I’m worried about creating a new server farm.  I only have the mdf and ldf files which I’ve re-added to the SQL server.