title: Check if a SQL server is available programmatically?
body: <p>I'm looking for a way to check SQL Server availability like this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/684063/is-there-a-simple-way-in-my-asp-net-app-to-programmatically-find-out-whether-the/684160#684160">MySQL solution</a>, unless there is a better method.</p>
  
  <p>My plan is to check if the SQL Server instance is up/down, and if it is down then display a message to the user, all via a try/catch.</p>