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Database Server Installation and Configuration

6:16 with James Churchill

In order to use Entity Framework in your local development environment, you need to have a database server. Let's confirm if you have SQL Server LocalDB installed and configured correctly, and if not, how to install and configure it.

Additional Learning

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    [MUSIC]

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    Even though Entity Framework supports variety of databases, the vast majority of

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    the time you'll be targeting Microsoft's own SQL Server database.

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    SQL Server is a robust enterprise-grade database server that can be

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    installed on your own local machines or ran in the cloud on virtual machines.

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    SQL Server is even available as a service

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    on Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform.

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    When developing applications with EF, we can target a developer-centric

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    version of SQL Server, appropriately named LocalDB.

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    LocalDB is easier to install and configure than the full SQL Server product.

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    Developing database-backed applications is so commonplace that when you install

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    Visual Studio Community, LocalDB will be installed by default.

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    So if you have Visual Studio Community installed,

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    you should have LocalDB installed.

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    But development environments and

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    their configuration can sometimes vary in unexpected ways.

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    In this video, we'll verify that LocalDB is installed and

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    configured to work correctly with EF.

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    Let's start with checking if LocalDB is installed.

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    Open a command prompt window and run the command sqllocaldb.

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    If LocalDB is installed,

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    you'll see information about the SQL Server Express LocalDB command line tool,

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    including the version number and a list of the operations that you can perform.

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    This tells us that this environment has LocalDB installed.

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    LocalDB has a notion of named instances.

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    We'll see an example of how they're used in the next video.

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    To see a list of the instances that are available,

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    we can add the info operation just after the sqllocaldb command.

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    sqllocaldb, space, info.

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    This environment has two LocalDB instances,

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    MSSQLLocalDB and ProjectsV13.

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    MSSQLLocalDB is the default instance name used by SQL Server 2014 and

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    2016, versions 12 and 13 respectively.

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    SQL Server 2012 or version 11 used a default instance named V11.0.

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    EF will look for and connect to a LocalDB instance named MSSQLLocalDB.

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    So this environment is properly configured to support EF development.

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    The project's V13 instance is created specifically for

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    SQL Server data tools, and shouldn't be used for application development.

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    SQL Server Data Tools or

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    SSDT is a set of database development tools for Visual Studio.

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    SSDT is beyond the scope of this course.

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    See the teacher's notes for more information.

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    Let's switch to an installation of Windows 10 that doesn't have Visual Studio or

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    LocalDB installed.

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    I'll open a Command Prompt window and run the sqllocaldb command.

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    And we get an error message, sqllocaldb is not recognized

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    as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

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    This error message is a likely indication that LocalDB isn't installed.

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    If we open the Windows 10 App & features window, we can

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    scroll through the list of installed apps and see that LocalDB isn't in the list.

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    To install LocalDB, we need to first download the SQL Server Express installer.

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    Open a browser and search for SQL Server Express download.

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    Here's the link to download the installer.

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    Select your preferred language and click Download.

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    Click Yes to allow this app to make changes to your device.

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    When prompted to select an installation type, click on the Download Media option.

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    Then we can select to download the LocalDB installer.

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    When the download has completed, click Open folder to browse through the folder

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    that the installer was downloaded to.

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    Double-click the SqlLocalDB file to start the installation wizard and

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    follow the prompts.

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    Once the installation process is completed, close all of the open windows.

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    Open a Command Prompt window and run the sqllocaldb command.

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    Looks good so far.

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    Now run the sqllocaldb info command.

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    We have a single instance named MSSQLLocalDB.

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    So now we're all set to use EF.

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    If you need to create an instance, you can run the sqllocaldb

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    command along with the create operation and the name of the instance.

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    Running the sqllocaldb info command again shows that we now have two instances.

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    We can delete the test instance using the delete operation

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    followed by the name of the instance to delete.

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    Running the sqllocaldb info command again shows that the test instance is now gone.

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