Problem with ASP.NET Membership Provider

Question

I've just deployed an ASP.NET web site to my hosting provider, but I keep getting the following error when I try and log in:

SQLExpress database file auto-creation error: The connection string specifies a local Sql Server Express instance using a database location within the applications App_Data directory.

I have already set up a DB with the required schema on the host, and I can even log in through the host DB from my dev machine, but not on the hosted site itself. My provider configuration is as follows:

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="Membership" connectionString="data source=localhost;initial catalog=bkelly_aspnetdb;user id=withheld; password=withheld;" />
</connectionStrings>
<system.web>
  <membership defaultProvider="SqlMembershipProvider">
    <providers>
      <clear/>
      <add name="SqlMembershipProvider" 
           type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" 
           connectionStringName="Membership" 
...

I find nothing at site level that suggests using the App_Data DB, but surely the directive should sort out any machine level provider config?

Answer 1

Might the problem be the disk that the file is on is compressed. This would produce the error you experienced

Answer 2

Under mono you have to replace the "SqlMembershipProvider" text to something else (doesn't matter unless it's something else) in your config. I don't think your host is using mono, but worth a try.

Answer 3

Not 100% on this, but try adding

<clear/>

...before you add your connectionStrings section:

<connectionStrings>
  <clear/>
  <add name="Membership" connectionString="data source=localhost;initial catalog=bkelly_aspnetdb;user id=withheld; password=withheld;" />
</connectionStrings>