Entity Framework Provider type could not be loaded

Question

I am trying to run my tests on TeamCity which is currently installed on my machine.

System.InvalidOperationException:

The Entity Framework provider type 'System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' for the 'System.Data.SqlClient' ADO.NET provider could not be loaded. Make sure the provider assembly is available to the running application.

See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information..

I have no reference to System.Data.Entity in any of my projects as was suggested on codeplex for upgrading to EF6.

So, I am not sure why am I getting this exception. I do not get any such exception when I run the tests from VS.

I did try to set CopyLocal to false then again to true.. but that does not seem to work either.

Update

My app.config has the following . Does this cause some behavior that I don't understand ?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
  </configSections>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework" />
  </entityFramework>
</configuration>

I get the following stacktrace in teamcity .

[MSTest] IntegrationTests.CrudTest+QuestionTest.Create
[03:59:11][IntegrationTests.CrudTest+QuestionTest.Create] Initialization method IntegrationTests.CrudTest+QuestionTest.Initialize threw exception. System.InvalidOperationException: System.InvalidOperationException: The Entity Framework provider type 'System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' for the 'System.Data.SqlClient' ADO.NET provider could not be loaded. Make sure the provider assembly is available to the running application. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=260882 for more information..
[03:59:11]
[IntegrationTests.CrudTest+QuestionTest.Create]     at System.Data.Entity.Config.ProviderServicesFactory.GetInstance(String providerTypeName, String providerInvariantName)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.ProviderServicesFactory.GetInstanceByConvention(String providerInvariantName)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.DefaultProviderServicesResolver.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.CachingDependencyResolver.<>c__DisplayClass1.<GetService>b__0(Tuple`2 k)
   at System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary`2.GetOrAdd(TKey key, Func`2 valueFactory)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.CachingDependencyResolver.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.ResolverChain.<>c__DisplayClass3.<GetService>b__0(IDbDependencyResolver r)
   at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereSelectArrayIterator`2.MoveNext()
   at System.Linq.Enumerable.FirstOrDefault[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Func`2 predicate)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.ResolverChain.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.RootDependencyResolver.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.ResolverChain.<>c__DisplayClass3.<GetService>b__0(IDbDependencyResolver r)
   at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereSelectArrayIterator`2.MoveNext()
   at System.Linq.Enumerable.FirstOrDefault[TSource](IEnumerable`1 source, Func`2 predicate)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.ResolverChain.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.CompositeResolver`2.GetService(Type type, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.IDbDependencyResolverExtensions.GetService[T](IDbDependencyResolver resolver, Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.InternalConfiguration.GetService[TService](Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Config.DbConfiguration.GetService[TService](Object key)
   at System.Data.Entity.Utilities.DbProviderFactoryExtensions.GetProviderServices(DbProviderFactory factory)
   at System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.DefaultManifestTokenService.GetProviderManifestToken(DbConnection connection)
   at System.Data.Entity.Utilities.DbConnectionExtensions.GetProviderInfo(DbConnection connection, DbProviderManifest& providerManifest)
   at System.Data.Entity.DbModelBuilder.Build(DbConnection providerConnection)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyInternalContext.CreateModel(LazyInternalContext internalContext)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.RetryLazy`2.GetValue(TInput input)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.LazyInternalContext.InitializeContext()
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.InternalContext.GetEntitySetAndBaseTypeForType(Type entityType)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.Initialize()
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.get_InternalContext()
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.ActOnSet(Action action, EntityState newState, Object entity, String methodName)
   at System.Data.Entity.Internal.Linq.InternalSet`1.Add(Object entity)
   at System.Data.Entity.DbSet`1.Add(TEntity entity)
   at EFRepository.Infrastructure.EFRepository`1.Add(T item) in c:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\da2ea4e72c0e77f0\Repository\Infrastructure\EFRepository.cs:line 22
   at IntegrationTests.CrudTest.Initialize() in c:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\da2ea4e72c0e77f0\IntegrationTests\CrudTest.cs:line 34

Answer 1

My solution was to remove the entity framework from the project via the nuget manager and add it back in.

Answer 2

After trying all other suggested solutions and don't getting my project to work, I finally found a little comment in this page:

Deleting the BIN-Folder did it for me

And it worked for me too.

Now I can't tell if you just have to delete the bin folder and it will already work or if first you'll have to do the things the other developers have suggested, but the point is that I only got it working after deleting the bin folder, and this after 3 or more hours looking for and tryinig other solutions. So, maybe it'll work for you too.

Answer 3

Make sure EntityFramework.dll, EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll and your provider's dll (for SQL Server Compact, that will EntityFramework.SqlServerCompact.dll) are in the deployed application folder. This is especially important for deployed application.

Answer 4

Nuget will configure your EF6 project to reference EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll. This deploys to the output folder for your EF6 project during build, but it will not deploy to the output folder for projects referencing your EF6 project. I believe this is because Visual Studio is "smart" enough to detect that nothing in your assembly is actually using the dll directly and so does not include it. You can force EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll to be deployed to the output folder of projects referencing your EF6 project (unit tests, UI's etc.) by adding code to your EF6 project that uses EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll. Be careful not to put the code in a generated class as you risk losing it on next regen. I chose to add the following class to the assembly, which fixed the problem.

using System.Data.Entity.SqlServer;

internal static class MissingDllHack
{
    // Must reference a type in EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll so that this dll will be
    // included in the output folder of referencing projects without requiring a direct 
    // dependency on Entity Framework. See http://stackoverflow.com/a/22315164/1141360.
    private static SqlProviderServices instance = SqlProviderServices.Instance;
}

Answer 5

I didn't want a reference to EF in my application project (or to manually copy anything) so I added this to my EF project's Post-build events:

cp $(TargetDir)EntityFramework.SqlServer.dll $(SolutionDir){your-main-bin-folder}

Answer 6

I finally resolved this. Turns out, I had an erroneous implementation of IDIsposable in my repository class. I fixed that. The erroneous implementation caused a stackoverflow exception since I wasn't disposing off resources properly. This caused VS not to run the tests and the test execution engine crashed.

I filed it with Microsoft here ( this was before I got the correct solution). connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/775868/vs-test-execution-crashes-in-vs-2012#details

Anyway, the builds now run fine on teamcity. ALthough, I am still curious why neither VS Test execution engine had a graceful way of telling me what was happening not Team City.

I discovered the root cause by manually debugging the test ( which I only realised after so many days , the fix took me 5 seconds).

Hopefully this will help someone who comes across such issues.