What's the fastest method to check SQL server availability?

Question

What's the best method to check if SQL server exists or not?

I'm trying Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server.PingSqlServerVersion() and it works fine if server exists and available. But it kinda pretty slow, if there is no such a server.

Is there any fast enough method to check without even defining user credentials (only the server name), if a server exists?

What do you recommend to use?

Answer 1

You could just use TcpClient class to query the server and check if a specific port is open, could be something like this:

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;

public bool CheckServerAvailablity(string serverIPAddress, int port)
{
  try
  {
    IPHostEntry ipHostEntry = Dns.Resolve(serverIPAddress);
    IPAddress ipAddress = ipHostEntry.AddressList[0];

    TcpClient TcpClient = new TcpClient();
    TcpClient.Connect(ipAddress , port);
    TcpClient.Close();

    return true;
  }
  catch
  {
    return false;
  }
}