SQL Server Error 7202

Error number

7202

Severity

11 (user-correctable error)

State

2

Product

Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine

Versions

All supported SQL Server versions (2016 to 2025), Azure SQL Managed Instance

Category

Linked Servers

Last reviewed

23 October 2026

What it means

Error 7202 means a query used a server name (in a four-part name, OPENQUERY, EXEC ... AT or a remote procedure call) that is not defined as a linked server on the instance running the query.

In SALESSRV01.Sales.dbo.Orders the first part is not a network host name: it is the name of a linked server that must exist in sys.servers on the instance where the query runs. SQL Server looks the name up before it contacts anything, so 7202 never involves the network. The name in quotes in the message is exactly what SQL Server searched for.

The usual story is that the code was written on a server where the linked server exists, and then runs somewhere it does not: another environment, a restored or migrated instance, or a linked server created under a different alias. Level 11 means the object was not found; nothing ran on the remote side.

Common causes

• No linked server with that name exists on this instance (it was never created, or the code moved to a new server, test environment or failover partner where it was not recreated).
• The linked server was created under a different name or alias than the one in the query (for example an IP address, a fully qualified name, or a short name).
• A typo or missing brackets: names that contain a backslash, dot or hyphen must be bracketed, such as [SALESSRV01\SQL2022].
• The query meant to read a local database but a four-part name was used by mistake; for local objects use a three-part name.
• After renaming the Windows host, @@SERVERNAME still holds the old name, and code that builds names from it points at a server that is not in sys.servers.

Diagnose it

Read-only These queries only read metadata and dynamic management views. They do not change data, permissions or configuration, so they are safe to run first.

SELECT server_id, name, product, provider, data_source,
       is_linked, is_data_access_enabled, is_rpc_out_enabled
FROM sys.servers
ORDER BY server_id;

SELECT @@SERVERNAME AS server_name, SERVERPROPERTY('ServerName') AS current_name,
       SERVERPROPERTY('MachineName') AS machine_name;

SELECT OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(object_id) AS schema_name, OBJECT_NAME(object_id) AS object_name
FROM sys.sql_modules
WHERE definition LIKE N'%SALESSRV01%';

How to fix it

Each fix is labelled with what it changes. Try read-only checks and the least invasive fix first, and test changes outside production.

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
     @server = N'SALESSRV01', @srvproduct = N'',
     @provider = N'MSOLEDBSQL', @datasrc = N'salessrv01.contoso.com';

EXEC master.dbo.sp_testlinkedserver N'SALESSRV01';

CREATE SYNONYM dbo.RemoteOrders FOR SALESSRV01.Sales.dbo.Orders;

Examples

A four-part name for a server that is not defined

-- No linked server called SALESSRV01 exists on this instance
SELECT TOP (10) * FROM SALESSRV01.Sales.dbo.Orders;

Msg 7202, Level 11, State 2, Line 2
Could not find server 'SALESSRV01' in sys.servers. Verify that the correct server name was specified. If necessary, execute the stored procedure sp_addlinkedserver to add the server to sys.servers.

OPENQUERY with an unknown linked server

SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY(SALESSRV01, 'SELECT 1 AS x');

Msg 7202, Level 11, State 2, Line 1
Could not find server 'SALESSRV01' in sys.servers. Verify that the correct server name was specified. If necessary, execute the stored procedure sp_addlinkedserver to add the server to sys.servers.

How to prevent it

Script linked servers (and their login mappings) as part of each server build and migration runbook, with the same names in every environment, so code that works in test also resolves in production. After a failover or restore to another instance, compare sys.servers on both.

Reference remote tables through synonyms or a small set of views, not hard-coded four-part names spread across many procedures.

Common questions

Learn more on CodeWithSQL

• SQL Server security: logins, users and permissions

Official documentation

• Linked servers (Database Engine)
• sp_addlinkedserver (Transact-SQL)
• sys.servers (Transact-SQL)

Last technically reviewed 23 October 2026; examples and diagnostics run on SQL Server 2025 (17.0.1145.4). Message text checked against the engine's sys.messages catalogue.