We run a couple of websites (hosted on different webservers) that connect to an SQL Server.

The data was recently moved to another SQL Server (called SQLCLUSTER) and now the first time the site is accessed, it takes over 20 seconds to bring up the page. If I don't set the Connection Timeout in the connection string to a value higher than that, the server times out. Subsequent pages load fine.

If I connect back to the old server there's no problem. The old server runs Express 2008, SQLCLUSTER runs 2008 Enterprise edition. It happens to both webservers and it only happens with SQLCLUSTER (regardless of which database is being connected to). A similar delay happens in VWD's Database Explorer when testing a connection to SQLCLUSTER.

Databases hosted on SQLCLUSTER are also the backend for Access applications. There is no delay accessing data through the Access front ends, or through SQL Server Mgmt Studio.

The timeout happens at the Open statement of: dbConn = New SqlConnection("Server=SQLCLUSTER;Database=GO_SQL_WEB;UID=WEB_USER;PWD=[xxxx]") (as stored in web.config) dbConn.Open()

The servers are all in the same LAN so I don't think its a firewall issue. The timeout also happens when viewing through localhost on either webserver.

Are there any web-specific settings that need to be addressed in SQL Server Enterprise?