Error: Failed to connect to the specified server. This SDE server does not support this client or operation

Article ID:	27139
Software:	ArcGIS - ArcEditor 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 ArcGIS - ArcInfo 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 ArcGIS - ArcView 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 ArcSDE 8.2, 8.3, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
Platforms:	N/A

Error Message

Connecting to an ArcSDE geodatabase using Direct Connect may result in the following error:

"Failed to connect to the specified server.
This SDE server does not support this client or operation."

Cause

This error occurs when attempting to open or test a Spatial Database Connection between ArcGIS 9.x and a previous version of ArcSDE 9.x. When using Direct Connect, the libraries that perform the connection are supplied by the client application. This is in contrast to a standard 3-tier connection, where the libraries that perform the connection are provided by ArcSDE. The client libraries must be at the same version as ArcSDE for Direct Connect to work; therefore, Direct Connect is only supported for configurations where the client application and ArcSDE are at the same version.

Solution or Workaround

Upgrade the ArcSDE server version to the same version as the ArcGIS client.

Related Information

Are ArcGIS Desktop applications forward compatible with major new releases of ArcSDE?
ArcGIS Desktop applications are not forward compatible with major new releases of the ArcSDE server product and the Geodatabase. This means that older versions of ArcGIS Desktop are not able to connect to newer major releases of ArcSDE. Examples o...
Failed to connect to the specified server
Failed to Connect to Database
Attempts to connect to an ArcSDE geodatabase using Direct Connect may result in the following error: "Failed to connect to database. Underlying DBMS error[ORA-06550: line 1, column 7: PLS-00306: wrong number or types of arguments in call to '...

Created: 7/7/2004
Last Modified: 8/17/2009