Question

I am trying to deploy a asp.net mvc site. My hosting service provider provides me dsn database connection for my sql server 2008 database. I changed my web.config to use dsn connection using this modification in web.config.

<appSettings>       
        <add key="myDSN" value="evdsn"/>    

</appSettings>

In my site I have used asp.net membership provider. I have all the tables of membership provider in my own database. when I deploy the site I get the following error:
\

My web.config file is as follows

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- 
    Note: As an alternative to hand editing this file you can use the 
    web admin tool to configure settings for your application. Use
    the Website->Asp.Net Configuration option in Visual Studio.
    A full list of settings and comments can be found in 
    machine.config.comments usually located in 
    \Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.x\Config 
-->
<configuration>
  <!--<configSections>

    <sectionGroup name="elmah">
      <section name="security" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.SecuritySectionHandler, Elmah"/>
      <section name="errorLog" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.ErrorLogSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
      <section name="errorMail" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.ErrorMailSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
      <section name="errorFilter" requirePermission="false" type="Elmah.ErrorFilterSectionHandler, Elmah"/>
    </sectionGroup>

  </configSections>-->
    <appSettings>       
            <add key="myDSN" value="evodsn"/>           
    </appSettings>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="evocon" connectionString="DSN=myDSN" providerName="System.Data.Odbc" />
  </connectionStrings>

  <system.net>
    <mailSettings>
      <smtp>
        <network host="smtp.gmail.com" />
      </smtp>
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>


    <system.web>
        <!-- 
            Set compilation debug="true" to insert debugging 
            symbols into the compiled page. Because this 
            affects performance, set this value to true only 
            during development.
    -->
    <httpHandlers>
      <!--<add verb="POST,GET,HEAD" path="elmah.axd" type="Elmah.ErrorLogPageFactory, Elmah"/>-->
      <add verb="*" path="TinyMCEHandler.aspx" type="Moxiecode.TinyMCE.Web.HttpHandler, Moxiecode.TinyMCE" validate="false" />
      <add verb="*" path="*.mvc" validate="false" type="System.Web.Mvc.MvcHttpHandler, System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <add path="WebResource.axd" verb="GET" type="System.Web.Handlers.AssemblyResourceLoader" validate="true" />
    </httpHandlers>

    <httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" />

    <!--<httpModules>
      <add name="ErrorLog" type="Elmah.ErrorLogModule, Elmah"/>
    </httpModules>-->

        <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0">
            <assemblies>
                <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
                <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
                <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
                <add assembly="System.Data.Linq, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089" />
                <add assembly="System.Design, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A" /></assemblies>
        </compilation>
        <!--
            The <authentication> section enables configuration 
            of the security authentication mode used by 
            ASP.NET to identify an incoming user. 
    -->
    <globalization uiCulture="en" culture="en-GB" />
        <authentication mode="Forms">
            <forms loginUrl="~/Account.mvc/index" timeout="2880" protection="All" />
        </authentication>
        <membership>
            <providers>
                <clear />               
                <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="evocon" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Hashed" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" applicationName="/" />
            </providers>
        </membership>
        <profile>
            <providers>
                <clear />
                <add name="AspNetSqlProfileProvider" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/" />
            </providers>
        </profile>
        <roleManager enabled="false">
            <providers>
                <clear />
                <add connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/" name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
                <add applicationName="/" name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
            </providers>
        </roleManager>
        <!--
            The <customErrors> section enables configuration 
            of what to do if/when an unhandled error occurs 
            during the execution of a request. Specifically, 
            it enables developers to configure html error pages 
            to be displayed in place of a error stack trace.-->

        <customErrors mode="Off">
            <error statusCode="403" redirect="NoAccess.htm"/>
            <error statusCode="404" redirect="FileNotFound.htm"/>
        </customErrors>

        <pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5" clientIDMode="AutoID">
            <namespaces>
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
                <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
                <add namespace="System.Linq" />
                <add namespace="System.Collections.Generic" />
                <add namespace="Telerik.Web.Mvc.UI" />
            </namespaces>
        </pages>

    </system.web>
    <!-- 
        The system.webServer section is required for running ASP.NET AJAX under Internet
        Information Services 7.0.  It is not necessary for previous version of IIS.
  -->
    <system.webServer>
        <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
        <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
        </modules>
        <handlers>
            <remove name="MvcHttpHandler" />
            <remove name="UrlRoutingHandler" />
            <add name="MvcHttpHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="*" path="*.mvc" type="System.Web.Mvc.MvcHttpHandler, System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        </handlers>
        <directoryBrowse enabled="false" />
        <defaultDocument>
            <files>
                <clear />
                <add value="Default.aspx" />
                <add value="Default.asp" />
                <add value="Default.php" />
                <add value="Default.htm" />
                <add value="Default.html" />
                <add value="Index.aspx" />
                <add value="Index.asp" />
                <add value="Index.php" />
                <add value="Index.htm" />
                <add value="Index.html" />
                <add value="parking.htm" />
            </files>
        </defaultDocument>
    </system.webServer>
    <runtime>
        <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
            <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
                <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0" newVersion="2.0.0.0" />
            </dependentAssembly>
        </assemblyBinding>
    </runtime>
  <!--<elmah>
    <errorLog type="Elmah.XmlFileErrorLog, Elmah" logPath="~/App_Data"/>
  </elmah>-->
  <location path="App_Data" allowOverride="false">
        <system.web>
            <authorization>
                <allow users="?" />
            </authorization>
        </system.web>
    </location>
</configuration>

Answer 1

You’re specifying in your <membership><provider> node that you want the connectionStringName to be “myconnectionstring”, yet you don’t specify that connection string anywhere. You’ve got an AppSetting key, but that isn’t being used either. So, yes, you should use the DSN name provided to you, but you’ve got to put it in the right place, which is the connectionStrings node in your .config file.

Update
This article about connecting to an ODBC database via the SQLDataSourceControl has some helpful info, namely, that your connectionString section could look like this:

<configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add 
      name="ODBCDataConnectionString" 
      connectionString="Driver=ODBCDriver;server=ODBCServer;"
      providerName="System.Data.Odbc"
    />
  </connectionStrings>
</configuration>

…so, perhaps instead of using the DSN designation, you could use the “server” attribute of the connectionString and then just use their dsn name there?