Running on VM server explorer can not find SQLEXPRESS

Question

User-259260637 posted

I have a virtual machine in VMware fusion on a mac pro and I have installed vs2010 and when I go to server explorer to create a Database from the list there is no DB to choose from. I have tried to look for:

• SQLEXPRESS
• .\SQLEXPRESS
• MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS
• the name of the WIN_36347674 which is next to the server on the windows server explorer tab

Has anybody any answers to why I cant find SQLEXPRESS or do I need to change the path to it somewhere?

Is there any other server option like localDB ?

Which would be my best option to get going... but i do have to put this on a sql server at the end of the project.

I didnt want to install SSMS and the full server as the project is only small ish.

Thanks

Answer 1

User-718146471 posted

You will at least need to install SQL Server on the server that you are trying to use. Just having a sql file generally isn't enough as I understand it; you still need a DB engine to handle  that SQL Server file.

Answer 2

User-259260637 posted

Does this not get installed with VS2010.

The service wasnt running on my list of running processes, it was disabled.

I enabled sql server from task manager running services and it works.

Answer 3

User-718146471 posted

It installs things that help it interact with SQL but you have to install an actual SQL Server. Any of the express versions will be just fine.