I’m currently installing Community Server to host a new community that I’m building.  Since I’m hosting it with DiscountASP.net, I needed to use the web installer.  I’ve also never installed Community Server before, so this was an excellent experience.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a bug in the web installer that prevents the password entered in an early page in the wizard from being persisted.  This results in the following error:

    Select Database Instance

    Choose the database where you would like to to install Community Server.

    Number:18456:
    Message:Login failed for user 'DB_USER_ID'.

 
Since the previous step in the wizard was able to list out all of the databases on the server, I knew there had to be something going wrong between those two steps.  In addition, I was able to connect to the database using Visual Studio 2005 Server Explorer using the same credentials.
 
The workaround to this is going to require a small code change in the installer/default.aspx code.
 
On line 520 (or somewhere around there), in the GetConnectionString method, change
 
return String.Format("server={0};uid={1};pwd={2};Trusted_Connection={3}", db_server.Text, db_login.Text, db_password.Text, (db_Connect.SelectedIndex == 0 ? "yes" : "no"));
 
to
 
return String.Format("server={0};uid={1};pwd={2};Trusted_Connection={3}", db_server.Text, db_login.Text, "YOUR_PASSWORD", (db_Connect.SelectedIndex == 0 ? "yes" : "no"));

And rerun the installer.

Hopefully, they can get this fixed in a future release, but until then, this workaround should keep you going.