Using localdb with VSTS
09 Feb 2018Today I had my devops hat on and got to work with Visual Studio Team Services automated builds.
I was really hoping that the default Hosted VS2017 build agent had a copy of SQL Server or SQL Express installed
so that my integration test library would be able to deploy and execute a number of tests.
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException : Connection Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed while attempting to consume the pre-login handshake acknowledgement. This could be because the pre-login handshake failed or the server was unable to respond back in time. The duration spent while attempting to connect to this server was - [Pre-Login] initialization=141279; handshake=79;
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception : The wait operation timed out
After a moment of despair and a frantic Google I sussed that SQL Express should indeed be installed, so why the Connection Timeout?
Turns out SQL Express isnt always started when your build agent starts.
I managed to fix this by introducing a PowerShell step into my VSTS Build Definition.
PowerShell
Version: 1.*
Display name: Start localdb
Type: inline script
Arguments:
Inline Script:
sqllocaldb start mssqllocaldb.
And hey presto - we have a localdb!
##[section]Starting: Start localdb
==============================================================================
Task : PowerShell
Description : Run a PowerShell script
Version : 1.2.3
Author : Microsoft Corporation
Help : [More Information](https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=613736)
==============================================================================
##[command]. 'D:\a\_temp\455ec5ea-0200-42c0-8ddc-78ca01be30bb.ps1'
LocalDB instance "mssqllocaldb" started.
##[section]Finishing: Start localdb
Happy testing!
— Dan