Parallels

Symptoms

When you try to connect to MSSQL server  over .NET Data Provider you get the error:

Format of the initialization string does not conform to specification starting at index {0}

For example: you can can get this error when try to use MSSQL Web Admin or try to Backup/Restore a backup file.

Cause

This is the known Windows problem. It is described here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823679/en-us

It caused by inacceptable characters in password for MSSQL user in connection string.

Resolution

To workaround this issue, it is necessary to remove inacceptable characters from the password. In case of Plesk it is necessary to change the password for user `sa` directly through Plesk.