Getting empty error message when install Drupal using Windows server 2012 I'm attempting to set up a Drupal 8.3.6 site on Windows Server 2012. I have been following this guide: http://www.drupalonwindows.com/en/blog/installing-drupal-8-windows

I'm at the point of running the Drupal installation, but am running into a road block at the Database configuration step. When attempting to save my database settings, it takes a very long time to attempt to save, and then I get an error message that simply says "Failed to connect to your database server. The server reports the following message: ." Just a blank error message.

Some info about my configuration:


I'm using SQL Server Express and maintaining it with SSMS 2017
My SQL Server setup uses Windows authentication and I am logged in as the Administrator account when working with it (I am not sure if this is different from the credentials Drupal tries to use)
Windows Firewall on my server is configured to allow connections to port 1433 as well as to sqlserver.exe
According to SQL Server Configuration Manager, SQL Server is running (SQL Server Agent and SQL Server Browser cannot be started however)
I created a database called "drupal" in MSSQL owned by the Administrator account, however I get the same error whether or not I specify this database name in the "Database name" field or if I define a new one. I am leaving the username/password blank as instructed by the installation page.
In the comments section of the install guide, one of the maintainers of the sqlsrv drivers says to use the 8.x-1.x branch if not purchasing Phpmssql, so these are the drivers I am using.
My server has 2 IP addresses, and the IP address of my Drupal site is different from the primary IP address of my server (my primary IP is used for a different site). My bindings in IIS are correct and I'm accessing the site via its designated IP. I feel like this is causing the problem with a connection issue, however if I change the host under "Advanced Options" from "localhost" to my server IP, the problem still persists.
Before using 8.x-1.x drivers, I was trying 8.x-2.x and getting the error message "The PhpMssql library is not available.", so maybe it's not an IP connection issue?


I feel like I've missed something in my configuration, but can't tell what that is from the install guide. Can anyone please shed some insight?
I figured it out, I think that trying to connect to "localhost" was failing because I should have been specifying {servername}\SQLEXPRESS instead.