Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider in Visual Studio 2010 Professional

asp.net .net visual-studio-2010 ado.net datasource
cbmeeks picture cbmeeks · Mar 29, 2012 · Viewed 124.8k times · Source

Why am I getting "Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider" when trying to setup a new datasource in Visual Studio 2010 Professional?

My stats:

  • Windows 7 64bit 16gig RAM
  • Visual Studio 2010 Professional
  • SQL Server 2008 (server A, full admin rights)
  • SQL Server 2008 (server B, full admin rights)

I have started a test ASP.NET application and when I try to add a new data source, I get:

Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed.

I have .NET 4 installed.

When I build the connection and click "Test Connection" it tests successful. SQL Server Management Studio connects just fine and I have verified the credentials on everything.

Answer

Mike picture Mike · Mar 29, 2012

I have seen reports of people having and additional, self terminating node in the machine.config file. Removing it resolved their issue. machine.config is found in \Windows\Microsoft.net\Framework\vXXXX\Config. You could have a multitude of config files based on how many versions of the framework are installed, including 32 and 64 bit variants.

<system.data>
    <DbProviderFactories>
        <add name="Odbc Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.Odbc" ... />
        <add name="OleDb Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.OleDb" ... />
        <add name="OracleClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data ... />
        <add name="SqlClient Data Provider" invariant="System.Data ... />
        <add name="IBM DB2 for i .NET Provider" invariant="IBM.Data ... />
        <add name="Microsoft SQL Server Compact Data Provider" ... />     
    </DbProviderFactories>

    <DbProviderFactories/>  //remove this one!
</system.data>

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