title: An error occurred while getting provider information from the database
body: <p>Getting the error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>System.Data.ProviderIncompatibleException: An error occurred while getting provider information from the database. This can be caused by Entity Framework using an incorrect connection string.<br>
    Check the inner exceptions for details and ensure that the connection string is correct.<br>
    ---> System.Data.ProviderIncompatibleException: The provider did not return a ProviderManifestToken string.<br>
    ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 25 - Connection string is not valid)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I get the same error when trying to do an <code>Add-Migration</code></p>
  
  <p>Here is my connection string, I need to access my local SQL server and NOT SQLEXPRESS.</p>
  
  <pre><code>  &lt;connectionStrings&gt;
      &lt;add name="ReaderInsightDbContext" 
           connectionString="data source=localhost\MSSQLSERVER;
                           initial catalog=ReaderInsight;Integrated Security=True" 
           providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" /&gt;
    &lt;/connectionStrings&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My DB is located:</p>
  
  <pre><code>C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So my instance is MSSQLSERVER. Not sure what is going on. It first worked just fine, but after I changed my code to use the UOW pattern, this is happening. I also upgraded from EF 4.3 to EF5. Same issue.</p>
  
  <p>I tried many variations of the data source in the connection string, none work, here are some examples:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>localhost\MSSQLSERVER </li>
  <li>.\MSSQLSERVER </li>
  <li>//localhost\MSSQLSERVER</li>
  <li>(local)\MSSQLSERVER</li>
  <li>127.0.0.1\MSSQLSERVER</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>If I do .\SQLEXPRESS it works.</p>