How to add LocalDB to Visual Studio 2015 Community s SQL Server Object Explorer

Question

Problem I don t understand how to make LocalDB show up in the SQL Server Object Explorer  On some VMs  it shows up automatically  on some other VMs  it doesn t  Still  after googling for hours  I don t get it  Current situation  I have a clean VM I installed Visual Studio 2015 Community  all default settings  I let a console application run  Entity Framework 6  code-first  console application  which worked on another VM and created a database automatically which then showed up in the SQL Server Object Explorer  but not this time  The error says  System Data SqlClient SqlException  0x80131904   A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server  The server was not found or was not accessible  Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections   provider  SQL Network Interfaces  error  52 - Unable to locate a Local Database Runtime installation  Verify that SQL Server Express is properly installed and that the Local Database Runtime feature is enabled   --- gt  System ComponentModel Win32Exception  0x80004005   The system cannot find the file specified  So  on this VM  no database gets created and nothing shows up in the SQL Server Object Explorer s SQL Server node   What I think to know  Visual Studio 2015 Community comes with LocalDB  so everything should just work out of the box  but it doesn t  and I don t know why LocalDB databases are just a pair of files    mdf and   ldf  I ve seen the files being created at the default database location at C  Users  lt username gt  AppData Local Microsoft Microsoft SQL Server Local DB Instances MSSQLLocalDB  but on this VM  there is no such folder The App config looked every time like this  and it was automatically created that way when I installed Entity Framework 6 the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio    App config  lt configuration gt     lt configSections gt       lt section name  quot entityFramework quot  type  quot System Data Entity Internal ConfigFile EntityFrameworkSection  EntityFramework  Version 6 0 0 0  Culture neutral  PublicKeyToken b77a5c561934e089 quot  requirePermission  quot false quot    gt   lt  configSections gt     lt entityFramework gt       lt defaultConnectionFactory type  quot System Data Entity Infrastructure LocalDbConnectionFactory  EntityFramework quot  gt         lt parameters gt           lt parameter value  quot mssqllocaldb quot    gt         lt  parameters gt       lt  defaultConnectionFactory gt       lt providers gt         lt provider invariantName  quot System Data SqlClient quot  type  quot System Data Entity SqlServer SqlProviderServices  EntityFramework SqlServer quot    gt       lt  providers gt     lt  entityFramework gt   lt  configuration gt   Other random comments  Earlier  with SQL Server  it was necessary to open up certain ports  but LocalDB runs  as I understand it  as a separate process on demand when started by Visual Studio  I don t know how to debug the SQLException Does LocalDB not come packaged with Visual Studio 2015 Community and do I need to install it separately

User · Accepted Answer

I had the same issue today recently installing VS2015 Community Edition Update 1.

I fixed the problem by just adding the "SQL Server Data Tools" from the VS2015 setup installer... When I ran the installer the first time I selected the "Custom" installation type instead of the "Default". I wanted to see what install options were available but not select anything different than what was already ticked. My assumption was that whatever was already ticked was essentially the default install. But its not.

User · Answer

My App config looks as below   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8   gt   lt configuration gt     lt configSections gt       lt  -- For more information on Entity Framework configuration  visit http   go microsoft com fwlink  LinkID 237468 -- gt       lt section name  entityFramework  type  System Data Entity Internal ConfigFile EntityFrameworkSection  EntityFramework  Version 6 0 0 0  Culture neutral  PublicKeyToken b77a5c561934e089  requirePermission  false    gt     lt  configSections gt     lt entityFramework gt       lt defaultConnectionFactory type  System Data Entity Infrastructure LocalDbConnectionFactory  EntityFramework  gt         lt parameters gt           lt parameter value  v11 0    gt         lt  parameters gt       lt  defaultConnectionFactory gt       lt providers gt         lt provider invariantName  System Data SqlClient  type  System Data Entity SqlServer SqlProviderServices  EntityFramework SqlServer    gt       lt  providers gt     lt  entityFramework gt   lt  configuration gt    I noticed that there is localDB in the path that you mentioned above and has the version v11 0  So I entered  LocalDB V11 0  in Add Connection dialogue and it worked for me

User · Answer

To check if LocalDb is installed or not    run cmd and type in sqllocaldb i this should give you the installed sqllocaldb instances if found  Run SSMS  SQL Server Management Studio   Try to connect to this instance  localdb  V11 0 using windows authentication    If an error is raised Cannot connect to  localdb  V11 0  change the instance name to  localdb  MSSQLLocalDB and try again to connect  if you still get the same error   Follow these steps to install LocalDb    Close SSMS  Close VS  Visual Studio  if it s running  Go to Start Menu and type in search sqlLocalDb  From the results that appears choose sqlLocalDb msi and click it  SQL setup will start to install LocalDB    after finishing the installation re-run SSMS and try connecting to either of the instances  localdb  V11 0 or  localdb  MSSQLLocalDB  one of it should work depending on what Visual Studio version you have   You can also verify that localdb is installed using Visual Studio by simply creating new sql file and go to the connect icon on the top header of the file which by default lists all the servers you can connect to including localdb if installed   In addition to the above mentioned ways of finding if localdb is installed  you can also use the MS windows power shell or windows command processor CMD or even NuGet package manager console on your server machine and run these commands sqllocaldb i and sqllocaldb v that will show you the localdb name if it is installed and the MSSQL server version installed and running on your machine

User · Answer

If you are not sure if local db is installed  or not sure which database name you should use to connect to it - try running  sqllocaldb info  command - it will show you existing localdb databases   Now  as far as I know  local db should be installed together with Visual Studio 2015  But probably it is not required feature  and if something goes wrong or it cannot be installed for some reason - Visual Studio installation continues still  note that is just my guess   So to be on the safe side don t rely on it will always be installed together with VS

User · Answer

I tried to install only LocalDB  which was missed in my VS 2015 installation   Followed below URL  amp  selectively download the LocalDB  2012  installer which is only 33mb in size      https   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 29062  If you are looking for the SQL Server Data Tool for Visual Studio 2015 Integration  then Please download that from     https   msdn microsoft com en-us mt186501

User · Answer

Search  sqlLocalDb  from start menu   Click on the run command   Go back to VS 2015 tools connect to database   select MSSQL server   enter  localdb  MSSQLLocalDB as server name   Select your database and ready to go

User · Answer

Search for sqllocaldb or localDB in your windows start menu and right click on open file location Open command prompt in the file location you found from the search On your command prompt type sqllocaldb start Use  lt add name  defaultconnection  connectionString  Data Source  localdb  MSSQLLocalDB Initial Catalog tododb Integrated Security True  providerName  System Data SqlClient    gt

[sql-server] How to add LocalDB to Visual Studio 2015 Community's SQL Server Object Explorer?

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