SharePoint 2013 - SQL Server connection failure

All of sudden, my SharePoint 2013 development server stopped working.

It says that SharePoint server cannot connect to the configuration database.

Below is the error message I got from windows events log when testing from SQL Server Management studio. It seems that the database connection is in trouble.

Faulting application name: Ssms.exe, version: 2011.110.3000.0, time stamp: 0x5081c1cd
Faulting module name: clr.dll, version: 4.0.30319.18444, time stamp: 0x52717e84
Exception code: 0x80131506
Fault offset: 0x002237de
Faulting process id: 0xd70
Faulting application start time: 0x01cf38bbd9ec2ecd
Faulting application path: E:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\clr.dll
Report Id: d1ded40d-a4bb-11e3-8321-005056b4002b


Application: Ssms.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.AccessViolationException
Stack:
   at SNINativeMethodWrapper.SNIClose(IntPtr)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SNIHandle.ReleaseHandle()
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.InternalFinalize()
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.Dispose(Boolean)
   at System.Runtime.InteropServices.SafeHandle.Finalize()

Faulting application name: Ssms.exe, version: 2011.110.3000.0, time stamp: 0x5081c1cd

Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.1.7601.22436, time stamp: 0x521eaa80

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000222d2

Faulting process id: 0x6e0

Faulting application start time: 0x01cf38c8fe1da46d

Faulting application path: E:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ntdll.dll

Report Id: 9775f54d-a4bc-11e3-8321-005056b4002b

After hours of investigation, I believe the problem roots in quite low level. My environment is ESX + Windows Server 2008 R2 + SharePoint Server 2013. I reinstalled windows OS, but the same problem is still there.

Not sure what happened. A ticket is logged with Microsoft, and they are working on it at the moment.

What I can do, is to change SQL Server connection protocol from TCPIP to Named Pipes. That "fixed" the problem.

I will let you know once find the cause.