Keyword not supported: 'server'

In MVC5 using EntityFramework 6.xx and Code First Approach

I had the same problem and I solved this by modifying my providerName

from

 providerName="System.Data.EntityClient"

to

providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"

This exception is thrown on azure websites when you store the connection string in the App Service itself (on the 'Application Settings' blade).

If the connection string is an Entity Framework connection string the quotes will be encoded as " by default in your web.config file.

You need to change these back to actual quotes so the connection string can be parsed properly.


I always either run a connection wizard to build my string or I use connectionstrings.com.

Assuming SQL Server:

Data Source=myServerAddress;Initial Catalog=myDataBase;User Id=myUsername;Password=myPassword;

Comparing to yours it is very different.

Server=xx.xx.xxx.xxx,xxxx;Database=AlBayan;Uid=bayan;Password=xxxxx;

For Entity Framework (database-first or model-first; when you have a physical EDMX model file) you need to use a special type of connection string which is quite different from the straight ADO.NET connection strings everyone else has mentioned so far...

The connection string must look something like:

<add name="testEntities" 
     connectionString="metadata=res://*/Model1.csdl|res://*/Model1.ssdl|res://*/Model1.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;data source=(local);initial catalog=test;integrated security=True;multipleactiveresultsets=True;App=EntityFramework&quot;" 
     providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />

Inside this connection string, you'll find the provider connection string= attribute which is basically your ADO.NET connection string:

provider connection string=&quot;data source=(local);initial catalog=test;integrated security=True;multipleactiveresultsets=True;App=EntityFramework&quot;" 

So here, you need to change your server name and possibly other settings.

  • data source=.... stands for your server (you can also use server=.....)
  • initial catalog=..... stands for your database (you can also use database=....)