ASP.NET built-in User Authentication production connection string - asp.net

Question

I am using ASP.NET built-in methods for User Authentication and Membership which uses a SQL Server flat file (.mdf) which is stored in the App_Data folder of my project solution.
I have this working locally, but when I deploy to Virtual Private Server (VPS) I am getting the following error message:
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: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified)
Here is my connection string:
<add name="DefaultConnection" connectionString="Data Source=IP_ADDRESS;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\ASPNETDB.MDF;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=30 User ID=USERNAME;Password=PASSWORD" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>

Answer 1

I don't use local .mdf files for SQL server, but try the following:
<add name="DefaultConnection" connectionString="AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|\ASPNETDB.MDF;Connect Timeout=30;User ID=USERNAME;Password=PASSWORD" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
Try that locally and see if it works. If it works locally, then try it on your VPS. I'm making the guess that for a local file, "Integrated Security" doesn't matter. Also, you were missing a ; before User ID, and I'm not sure why the IP address would matter for a local file.

Answer 2

Fixed the semi-colon and still showing the same error message but now also:
SQLExpress database file auto-creation error:
The connection string specifies a local Sql Server Express instance
using a database location within the application's App_Data directory.
The provider attempted to automatically create the application
services database because the provider determined that the database
does not exist. The following configuration requirements are necessary
to successfully check for existence of the application services
database and automatically create the application services database:
If the application is running on either Windows 7 or Windows Server
2008R2, special configuration steps are necessary to enable automatic
creation of the provider database. Additional information is available
at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160102. If the
application's App_Data directory does not already exist, the web
server account must have read and write access to the application's
directory. This is necessary because the web server account will
automatically create the App_Data directory if it does not already
exist. If the application's App_Data directory already exists, the web
server account only requires read and write access to the
application's App_Data directory. This is necessary because the web
server account will attempt to verify that the Sql Server Express
database already exists within the application's App_Data directory.
Revoking read access on the App_Data directory from the web server
account will prevent the provider from correctly determining if the
Sql Server Express database already exists. This will cause an error
when the provider attempts to create a duplicate of an already
existing database. Write access is required because the web server
account's credentials are used when creating the new database. Sql
Server Express must be installed on the machine. The process identity
for the web server account must have a local user profile. See the
readme document for details on how to create a local user profile for
both machine and domain accounts.