A step to remember to Configure Mirroring in local systems (where no domain is configured)

If you are configuring mirroring between SQL instance with in your local systems or in a setup where domain is not available (it may be a setup where 2 computers are connected in a workgroup instead of domain), you may experience below error:

The server network address “TCP://SQLServer:5023″ cannot be reached or does not exist.
Check the network address name and that the ports for the local and remote endpoints are operational.
(Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 1418)

This is because of the permission issue related to accessing OS components (port via TCP/IP protocol) which is essential for mirroring.

To resolve this, please make sure that both (all) the SQL instance are running with log on credential of ‘local system’ as shown in below screen-print:

Note: By default, this service should run as NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK for SQL Server which needs to be changed to NT AUTHORITY\LocalService to enable mirroring to work. Keep password field as “blank” to configure SQL instance to run with NT AUTHORITY\LocalService. Also you need to access Log On tab of the property page of service to implement this change.