I'm trying to install SharePoint 2019 and the remote connection to my SQL Server is failing. I've set up the firewall rules on SQL Server, allowed TCP and UDP ports 1433 and 1434 and have allowed the sqlservr.exe program in the inbound rules.
The user that's being used in the SP install wizard is an active AD domain user. I can ping the server by IP address and by name but it seems that SQL Server never receives the connection attempt.
As a test I set up a .udl file on the SharePoint host and tried to connect to the SQL Server and the connection still failed. It's not just the SP installer but something is preventing connections to SQL. I've searched the web and tried every tutorial, MS guide and suggestion but it's still failing.
Is there anything else I can check? This should not be as difficult as it has been and I'm wondering if something else is preventing the connection.
I appreciate any help.