I’m troubleshooting the error on FIM installation:

“Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service is having trouble contacting SQL server using the provided information. Please note that Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service requires Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 or better. Verify the version, server and instance names as well as firewall settings and try again.”

The SQL Server is in a different domain and a different forest. There is a two-way trust. (I know one way trusts where SQL doesn’t trust the domain FIM is in don’t work.)

Since I’ve seen this error in the past, I thought I’d write out the steps I’m taking to troubleshoot:

1. Verify an ODBC connection can be made from FIM to SQL.
2. Verify Firewall rules.
3. Enable verbose logging on the installation: msiexec /i [File location] /lv*x [Log file location–file must already exist] (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa367988(v=vs.85).aspx) Search for return value 3 to find the error.
4. Disable IESC for Administrators.
5. Verify Full Text Search is installed on SQL.
6. If using a non-default SQL instance, verify the SQL Browser is running.
7. Verify SQL Agent is running.
8. Verify the SQL Native Client is installed on FIM.

In this case, the SQL Native Client was the issue.