Azure storage emulator connecting to unknown sql instance

Question

I have a "fresh" (I think refurbished) laptop from my employer, where I installed a new instance of the Azure Storage Emulator. This one fails to start with the well known message:

"Error: Unable to start the storage emulator".

In my eventviewer I see the following message:

Login failed for user 'xxxx'. Reason: Failed to open the explicitly specified database 'xxxxx'. [CLIENT: local machine]

The thing is, I don't know which server that is (unknown to me and my team), and the username is also unknown. I've searched for quite some time, but I can't find any article where is explained where the connection strings are configured used by the emulator instead of connecting to the emulator. For me, I only need the blob storage, so sql is not even needed, but I can't disable it it seems.

Any tips?

Answer 1

It is trying to connect to LocalDb instance. By default (localdb)\MSSQLLocalDb. Make sure you have it up and running. I believe it is connecting via intergated security, thus with your windows account.

In case you would like to point storage emulator to different instance you have to configure it with command

AzureStorageEmulator.exe init /server <SQLServerInstance>

For more info about confiuguration take a look at Use the Azure storage emulator for development and testing

Answer 2

For me, I only need the blob storage, so sql is not even needed, but I can't disable it it seems.

By default, the storage emulator uses a database in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB. You can choose to configure the storage emulator to access a local instance of SQL Server instead of the LocalDB instance. For more information, please refer to How the storage emulator works.

For complete info: it is connecting to a localdb but it expects all sorts of databases and accounts which aren't there

Currently, It doesnot support all sorts of databases. The storage emulator connects to SQL Server or LocalDB using Windows authentication.

If you have any ideas, you could give your feedback to Azure team.