Sql Express DB in APP_DATA when using IIS Virtual Directory - asp.net

I want to setup a website that uses an SQL Express .mdf file located in the APP_DATA folder. when I create the site as a file-system website, it connects to the database file without issue...
however when I create the same site in IIS and I get to the point where it wants to attach to the SQL Express database, it says it cannot connect.
I'm kind of lost as to how these are different, as I've only ever used the full SQL Server, that is creating a new database and setting connection strings. This sql express site seems to just "pick up" the local database. It appears to be doing this automatically in file-system mode...
can someone provide me with some insight as to how these are different and if a) I can do the same thing when using IIS instead of the file-system and b) how this would be done (I'm thinking permissions?)
thanks!

Check Server Configuration Manager on your SQL Express setting. Make sure remote connections are allowed and also check your firewall settings.
By default remote connections are not allowed in SQL Express.

okay, it turns out that the Application Pool had the "Load User Profile" setting to "False" in IIS. This results in the error:
Failed to generate a user instance of
SQL Server due to failure in
retrieving the user's local
application data path. Please make
sure the user has a local user profile
on the computer. The connection will
be closed. [CLIENT: ]
I don't remember why this happens or what it means, or if changing it is a security risk, but I ALWAYS encounter this problem, and setting it to "True" completely fixed the problem!
can anyone tell me more about what this setting is for and why it keeps getting set to false?

Related

Can't Access SQLite DB on Azure Web App

I have created an ASP.NET MVC web app which uses an SQLite database under EF6.
The app works fine in VS. The database is included in the project in the App_Data folder. When I publish to Azure (or an IIS test server on the LAN) I get an error. The Azure instance is showing an HTTP 500 error, and it only happens on views which require database access to load. Other than that it works fine. The IIS test server shows an error saying unable to open database file. I tried loosening file permissions on the .db file on the IIS instance, but nothing changed. I'm not sure how to go about doing anything on the Azure instance.
Can someone please assist me with debugging a SQLite connection problem on Azure/IIS?
Details
VS 2015 Enterprise
Azure app services (free tier, production server)
SQLite3 database
IIS on Windows Server 2012R2 (test server)
I have tried all sorts of combinations of connection strings:
setting a connection string to the D:/xxx/xxx path in Azure Portal
modifying the connection string in the deployment profile in VS (replaces value in web.config upon deployment)
just leaving it all the same
Nothing has worked or even changed the error. Perhaps one of those configurations is able to access the file but simply can't open it (which is sort of what the IIS error suggests, I think). Even then, how do I go about finding out?
EDIT
On the IIS test server I discovered that the entire problem was that the connection string in Web.config was wrong. I manually edited it on the server and it fired right up. I'm still not sure how to correct the path on the Azure server, nor how to correct my deployment settings in VS to inject the correct path. Thoughts along those lines are still appreciated.
EDIT 2
I've also found that each time I hit a page requiring DB access, I see this error show up in the application logs on Azure:
2017-01-03T20:25:32
System.ApplicationException: The trace listener AzureBlobTraceListener is disabled. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The SAS URL for the cloud storage account is not specified. Use the environment variable 'DIAGNOSTICS_AZUREBLOBCONTAINERSASURL' to define it.
at Microsoft.WindowsAzure.WebSites.Diagnostics.AzureBlobTraceListener.RefreshConfig()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
After some abysmally slow debugging sessions, I finally remembered that in toying around I had set a connection string value in the Azure portal.
Apparently whatever value is set in the Azure Portal overrides (at runtime?) the values in the Web.config file
I simply deleted the connection string from the Azure Portal (your app/Application Settings/Connection Strings) and it worked. The final connection string looks like this:
<add name="yourThingEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/cadb_SQLite.csdl|res://*/cadb_SQLite.ssdl|res://*/cadb_SQLite.msl;provider=System.Data.SQLite.EF6;provider connection string="data source=D:\home\site\wwwroot\App_Data\yourSQLiteDBFile.db"" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
To get the Web Deploy working in VS, you'll need to edit the publish profile to have a connection string matching the format
data source=D:\home\site\wwwroot\App_Data\yourSQLiteDBFile.db
Apparently not many people use SQLite for web apps, and most people should not. If you ever expect more than one user for your website at a time, you shouldn't fix SQLite, you should convert to SQL Server CE or just full-blown SQL Server which Azure will take care of for a paltry $5/mo. Choose wisely!

SQL Database error generated during IIS deployment

my asp.net application runs successfully in development server of visual studio. but when i deploy my application in IIS it generates the error as follows
Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server due to failure in
retrieving the user's local application data path. Please make sure
the user has a local user profile on the computer. The connection will
be closed.
what are the necessary changes that i should do in my application. also guide me how to deploy my database on IIS.
What is your connection string?
More specifically, I am wondering if you are using a .mdf file as your database.
If this is the case, you need to ensure that your web application has write-permissions within the App_Data folder of your website.
It is hard to say exactly without seeing your connection string, but possibly this KB article will help. It relates to SQLExpress and the error you are seeing.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2002980

How to effectively set up MySQL Users and Roles in the production server WITHOUT Visual Studio?

So far I have been using the WebSite Administration Tool built in Visual Studio 2010 to manage Users and Roles along with MySQL Membership and Roles Provider.
Now, I have deployed the application to the production server and I am getting the following error:
Even if I tried to copy one of the roles and one of the users from my local DB to the one used by the production server, it didn't quite work and I keep getting the same error. At least, I'm sure that's the cause of the error because I did a remote debugging which led me to find it.
At this point I am very confused on how to get it working properly. So, any help or guidance would be really appreciated.
EDIT: At this point the User has been already authenticated in the login page using the connectionString to the production DB server. For that reason, I have dismissed any kind of problems related to the connectionString. I get this error while loading the masterPage where the role is needed in order to choose which menu to display.
The exception message says it all: It cannot connect to the database. Verify that your production DB server is running, that the connection string is correct and that you have network connectivity (including name resolution) from the web server to the DB server.
The solution for this problem was to create the mysql_aspnet_membership provider by granting full access through the machine.config and autogenerating the schema, instead of manually creating the membership tables in the database, which I though there could have been a valid way to create the db.
Afterwards, this didn't break anymore.

IIS7 application using wrong SQL Server 2008 Express database

I'm stumped. I have a client site on a virtual private server - Windows Web Server 2008 SP2, IIS7, SQL Server 2008 Express.
I'm trying to setup a second web application, to allow him to review updates prior to their going live. I've created the web application in IIS7, and I have added a second database to SQL Server. The second db is essentially a copy of the production db, with 'DEV' prefixed to the database name and a few new fields in a few tables.
My production site works fine. However, the test site comes back with an SqlException: "Invalid column name 'version'." This is one of the new fields - which leads me to believe that my dev site is referring to the production database, and not the dev database. Connection strings, however, do point to different databases (although the login is the same for both):
Production site: "Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=myDbName;User ID=myUserName;Password=myUserPassword;"
Dev site: "Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=DEVmyDbName;User ID=myUserName;Password=myUserPassword;"
Seems like this should be something obvious that I'm missing. A colleague suggested that I create another application pool for the second IIS application, but it does not seem to have helped.
UPDATE, following further testing:
I changed the dev site's connection string to
"Server=.\SQLExpress;Database=DEVmyDbName;User ID=devuser;Password=myNewDifferentPassword;"
and created a new SQL server login on the database, and only gave it access to the dev database. I also set the dev database as the account's default database. I removed access to the dev database from the production login. When I try to login to the site, I get the following error:
The server principal "devuser" is not able to access the database "myDbName" under the current security context.
As a result, there are two things I know for certain:
Since it's using the new username to login, I know the app is using the connection string I'm feeding it;
For some reason, once logged in, it appears to be ignoring the specified database and trying to use the production database instead.
I don't think it should make a difference, but I will mention I'm using NHibernate for database access.
Still stumped.
It turns out that NHibernate was significant. One of the NHibernate configuration options that was set was "default_schema" - when I removed it, the app started connecting to the correct database.
It appears that the default_schema property was overriding whatever database was specified in the connection string.

problems with user instance SQL Server 2005 Express mdf file

I have a web app that I am working with on a separate server. I didn't originally create it, but I have to maintain it. I had to to do some manual editing of one of the database tables, which I did through Visual Studio 2008 installed on the same machine. Now I get SQL exceptions regarding Network Service not having the right privileges.
How do I avoid this from happening? I haven't modified any settings regarding the security or access information. It was working before I made the modification, and now it isn't.
Thanks!
Did you by chance change the connection information stored for the DB? Perhaps remove a explicit user (SQL Authentication) and replace it with a Trusted_Connection?
Also did you change the webserver to no longer use authentication?
The error sounds like it is coming from the fact that the Network Service account (the one generally responsible for running ASP.NET pages) cannot access the DB. This happens mostly when authentication is disabled, and there is no explicit SQL Authentication.

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