Overview/Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide a central location of different ways to troubleshoot the FIM Service Management Agent "Failed to Retrieve Schema" message.  There are several pieces of information out here in the wiki that cover things to try, and I would like to place them in a centralized article for us to use.

Here are some basic steps to troubleshoot this issue:

• Stop and Start the Services:  Go into the Services Management Console and stop the Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service, and the Forefront Identity Manager Service.  Once you have both services stopped, then go back and start the services.  Please keep in mind, that based on your FIM Solution Topology, you have have the FIM Service, and the FIM Synchronization Service on separate machines.
• Validate the FIM Service Management Agent: Validating the FIM Service Management Agent account that is listed in the FIM Service Management Agent with that that was specified during the installation.  Here is a good Microsoft TechNet Wiki that will walk you through the steps to validate the FIM Service Management Agent.
• Refresh the Schema of the FIM Service Management Agent: Refreshing the FIM Service Management Agent Schema confirms that we have the ability to communicate with the FIM Portal via the FIM Service.  Here is a good Microsoft TechNet Wiki that will walk you through the steps to Refresh the Schema of the FIM Service Management Agent.
• SQL Server UDL File: If your SQL Server is remote, validate your connection to SQL Server by creating a UDL File.  You will want to open a Command-Prompt running as the FIM Service Management Agent Account, or log into the FIM Synchronization Server as the FIM Service Management Agent Account and then open and configure the UDL file and test your connection.
  

  How to create a UDL file to test the connection to SQL Server

  Create a new text file on the Desktop and call it TestSQL.Txt Change the file extension to UDL (TestSQL.UDL) Open a Command-Prompt where you right click while holding the Shift button down to select Run As. You want to run it as the FIM Service Management Agent Account Or you could log into the machine as the FIM Service Management Agent Account Double click on the TestSQL.UDL On the Provider Tab ensure that Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server is selected Click Next On the Connection Tab, Select or enter a server name: Enter the name of the SQL Server that the Synchronization Service is pointing which is housing the FIMSynchronizationService database. Use Windows NT Integrated Security Click Test Connection If this works, then you have a successful connection to SQL Server

 

Post Update 2 Installation:
If you have recently upgraded to FIM 2010 Update 2 and are experiencing issues Creating the FIM Service Management Agent, updating the FIM Service Management Agent, or refreshing the schema on the FIM Service Management Agent.

TROUBLESHOOTING: Failed to retrieve schema or cannot connect to database
[TROUBLESHOOTING] FIM Service Management Agent - Failed to connect to the specified database