Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server ...

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James R. Davis - 11 Dec 2007 18:34 GMT

... due to failure in receiving user's application data path.

Okay, this simply cannot be a problem unique to me and I assume there is a
straight forward solution, but it escapes me.

I have completed a fully functional application using ASP.NET 2 on my
development site. Wanting to make it functional on a different server, I
installed SQL Express on the target server, then moved the application using
Visual Web Development to the new server.

The error message I used in the subject line started immediately.

The development system is Windows 2000 server while the target system is
running Windows 2003.

I suspect the problem is that I setup SQLexpress to use Windows
authentication, but I also made sure that it allows ASPNET full rights.

Can anybody lead me in the right direction with this? Thanks.

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Peter Bromberg [C# MVP] - 11 Dec 2007 19:27 GMT

I wish I had a dollar for every time this one comes up! SQLEXPRESS only
supports "User Instance" connection mode on the local machine. To set up your
database on a remote web server, you need to either ATTACH the MDF file and
change your connection string, or use the database publishing wizard (free
download) to create a full SQL Script which you can then run against the
remote database to recreate your "Stuff".
-- Peter
Site: http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog: http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com
MetaFinder: http://www.blogmetafinder.com

> .... due to failure in receiving user's application data path.
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Can anybody lead me in the right direction with this? Thanks.

Reply to this Message

James R. Davis - 11 Dec 2007 19:55 GMT

I must be really dense because I cannot understand what you have just said
about SQLExpress. That is, on my development system (W2K server), I built
this application using SQLExpress. None of my testers had any trouble
whatever in connecting with the development site using its URL and
exercising the application. Further, on the target server the ASPNETDB.MDF
is on THAT server within the APP_DATA directory - it is local to the
application in other words.

> I wish I had a dollar for every time this one comes up! SQLEXPRESS only
> supports "User Instance" connection mode on the local machine. To set up your
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
> >
> > Can anybody lead me in the right direction with this? Thanks.

Reply to this Message

Norman Yuan - 11 Dec 2007 23:07 GMT

I hate to say it, but here you go:

if you followed any ASP.NET2.0 book to build a web site and used ASP.NET
management wizard to create ASPNETDB, and you have SQL Server Express
installed, and you haven't study more on SQL Server Express's USER INSTANCE,
then the problem is the natural outcome. MS (most ASP.NET 2.0 books) really
should not make use of SQL Server Express' USER INSTANCE as default without
explicitly requiring user to understand it first. You should only use USER
INSTANCE when you know what it is and it is suitable to your application.

Back to your direct problem (assume you have certainly known what USER
INSTANCE is):

1. Does the other server have SQL Server Express or other version of SQL
Server? Only SQL Server Express support USER INSTANCE. If you run a web
application from a server of hosting service provider, it is most likely
they have full SQL Server (Std, or Ent. edition), not SQL Server Express.

2. Even the server has SQL Server Express installed, deso it have its USER
INSTANCE enabled? That is, when installing SQL Server Express, you can
choose to enable/disable USER INSTANCE.

3. ASPNETDB.mdf means nothing uless being attached to an instance of SQL
Server (including USER INSTANCE).

4. Most web application do not need to use USER INSTANCE.

>I must be really dense because I cannot understand what you have just said
> about SQLExpress. That is, on my development system (W2K server), I built
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>> >
>> > Can anybody lead me in the right direction with this? Thanks.

Reply to this Message

James R. Davis - 12 Dec 2007 23:29 GMT

It has been a constant problem for me to try to use SQLExpress on my target
server. When I moved the application to the new server I received any
number of connection error messages as indicated by this thread. When I
created a new site on that server and moved the application to it, it worked
perfectly. I checked the permissions on both sites and they are identical.

In any event, since the target server is mine and I have a full SQL 2005
instance running on it, I merely changed the connect strings to access data
bases within it (after I copied the attached Express databases into it, of
course) and now either the original target site or the new one work
perfectly.

This is not a criticism of Express exactly. I used it to develop the
application and it was not going to be the production server at all. I
merely wanted to test the application using Express before I went the extra
mile and moved to the full SQL instance.

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

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Failed to generate a user instance of SQL Server ...

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