Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and SQL collation

Some will have done this:  SCCM (or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager as it is now called) requires SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation specified when installing SQL.  We install SQL before installing SCCM and thus because this collation is not the default, we then have to go back and reinstall SQL with the correct SQL collation.  And even if we have specified the correct collation we can still get the error when running the SCCM prerequisite checker.

And why is this? The clue might in the next Failed check - SQL Server sysadmin rights.  You need to ensure your installation account is a member of the sysadmins SQL group.  Without such rights the checker is unable to determine the collation and thus we see the initial failure, even though the collation is correct.

In addition ensure Named Pipes in the SQL Server Configuration Manager for both server and client.

And you should also check you SQL Server (MSSQLSERVER) service is running.