SQL Database

Question

SQL Database

Paul Armstrong 0

I’ve been having an issue connecting to a SQL database be it an azure server or the express version in Visual Studio. I have tried downloading the Microsoft SQL server express since all I need as of right now is just the local database, and each time it fails downloading. I have tried looking online through Microsoft Q&A, Stack Overflow, and just general searches. The SQL server express is not running and every time I try to start having it run I keep on getting the error “The path cannot be found”. I’m new to Visual Studio and I have tried ADO.NET and Entity Framework Core. I have asked my professor in college for potential fixes. I have a Microsoft Galaxy Book Go 5g and a server for my computer does show up in the server explorer so I do not know if this is the problem or not. If anyone can help that will be appreciated. I have also tried connecting to an Azure Server that I created and that hasn’t worked either.

Greg Low 1,985 Reputation points Microsoft Regional Director

2024-02-12T05:45:01.1933333+00:00

When you say "it fails downloading", what does that mean exactly? Note that there is an option where you can download the installation media and then run it from there, rather than running the option that downloads during install.
Erland Sommarskog 129.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2024-02-12T22:44:59.4233333+00:00

Adding to Greg's question, you also talk about "Azure server". Exactly service do you have there? How do you try to connect to it?
SSingh-MSFT 16,461 Reputation points Moderator

2024-02-16T04:13:34.6733333+00:00

Hi Paul Armstrong •,

Could you please refer to the suggestions provided by Erland and Michael and reply back.

Thanks

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Greg Low 1,985 Reputation points Microsoft Regional Director

2024-02-12T05:45:01.1933333+00:00

When you say "it fails downloading", what does that mean exactly? Note that there is an option where you can download the installation media and then run it from there, rather than running the option that downloads during install.
Erland Sommarskog 129.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2024-02-12T22:44:59.4233333+00:00

Adding to Greg's question, you also talk about "Azure server". Exactly service do you have there? How do you try to connect to it?
SSingh-MSFT 16,461 Reputation points Moderator

2024-02-16T04:13:34.6733333+00:00

Hi Paul Armstrong •,

Could you please refer to the suggestions provided by Erland and Michael and reply back.

Thanks

Answer 1

Michael Taylor 61,116

You don't need to download any SQL Server versions. If you install Visual Studio with Data Science workload then it includes a local copy of SQL Server, localDb, that you should be developing against. This version is designed for building apps with a database that will eventually connect to a hosted SQL Server, on premise or the cloud.

You can confirm you have this installed by going to SQL Server Object Explorer in Visual Studio. It should show you 2 nodes. The first node is for any SQL projects you have loaded in your solution. The second node is for the LocalDb instance that is available. It is this instance that you'll generally develop against.

While you can use SQL Server Object Explorer to create tables, add data, etc it is generally easier to create a SQL Project with your tables and data and then deploy (by running it in VS) to your LocalDb instance. When you're ready to start working with a hosted SQL Server instance you can deploy your SQL project to it (or copy the scripts and run them).

Paul Armstrong 0 Reputation points

2024-02-14T06:19:42.66+00:00

I don't get an option for the Data Science workload. However I made sure all the individual components where selected. Also everytime I try to connect to the local database instance I get this error.
Michael Taylor 61,116 Reputation points

2024-02-14T15:28:20.4566667+00:00

Sorry, I meant Data Storage. If you go to Individual Components do you have SQL Server Express 2019 LocalDB checked? If so then LocalDB is installed.

I don't understand what you mean by when you try to connect. Do you have the nodes in SQL Server Object Explorer (SSOE) that I mentioned? If so then it is installed. If you click on a node and get that error then I'm going to wager your install is messed up. I could see this happening if you fiddled with the server settings in Services or something along those lines but I would be guessing. The error itself just indicates that the connection string it is trying to use isn't correct.

To use LocalDB in your app you need to deploy your database first. Once you do that it'll show up in SSOE under Databases). You will need to refresh the node first. You should then be able to view the tables, add data, etc. If you right click that database node and view its properties then it'll give you the connection string to use (it's way longer than it needs to be but whatever).
Paul Armstrong 0 Reputation points

2024-02-16T04:45:47.3133333+00:00

For some reason I cannot deploy the database. Before I even started messing with anything I was not able to. For some reason that's why I tried using other methods to be able to do it. I first tried with ADO.NET and I kept on getting an error. This is what it has been saying the whole time.
Michael Taylor 61,116 Reputation points

2024-02-16T15:16:04.1066667+00:00

Are you using a SQL Database project and are you trying to deploy that database to your SQL instance? If so then that would seem to indicate an issue with your SQL Native Client.

But, given the message details, it looks like you are trying to run your application which is trying to connect to the database and is failing. In that case it is because your application does not have the proper NuGet package deployed to the output directory. Your application would need to reference the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient package (which it may indirectly from EF). At build time the necessary binaries (including the aforementioned binary) will be copied to your output directory. Note that it appears you're building your app for x64. You'll need to resolve your Nuget package issues first and this is unrelated to your SQL instance.

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