Question

I have put together a simple ASP.NET MVC 3 test web app that uses Entity Framework 4.1. My DBContext looks like this:

public class EFDbContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<TestParent> TestParents { get; set; }
    public DbSet<TestChild> TestChildren { get; set; }
}

So I am expecting EF will look for a connection string named EFDbContext. Here is what the web.config contains in my local environment:

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="EFDbContext"
     connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=testDB;Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=True"
     providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

I have provided neither a user name nor a password in the connection string. So to my understanding EF will use Windows Authentication for the database connect. In my local environment everything works as expected.

Now – when I release this web app to the server at my web hoster I have to switch to SQL Server Authentication (limitation of the web hoster – fair enough). So I have adjusted my connection string to look like this:

<connectionStrings>
  <remove name="LocalSqlServer" />
  <add name="EFDbContext"
       connectionString="Data Source = localhost\SQLEXPRESS; Initial Catalog = testDB; User Id = dbUser; Password = dbPassword; Integrated Security = SSPI; MultipleActiveResultSets = True; Persist Security Info=True"
       providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

That is the only change that I have consciously made. Unfortunately this doesn’t work any more. The error message that is displayed indicates that the database connect is attempted using Windows Authentication and not SQL Server Authentication as I would expect (error message is in German but it lists the user which the hoster has confirmed is one of the Windows users they have created).

The error message also contains the database name as I have specified it in the Initial Catalog part of the connection string. This seems to me like a clear indication that the connection string named EFDbContext is indeed read and used by EF.

My problem is that I can’t even find a starting point to get closer to the problem. The whole thing seems like a black box to me. Does EF attempt SQL Server Authentication and then switches to Windows Authentication as a fallback? Or do I need to change a setting in some config file to force EF over to SQL Server Authentication?

I couldn’t come up with any sensible way to scale my application back further. My Google searches didn’t get me anywhere, and banging my head against the wall multiple times didn’t deliver a solution either. So any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Why did you keep the “Integrated Security = SSPI; ” in you connection string? See here for getting more info on connection strings.