Edit a Database Connection String (IIS 7)

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

Edit a database connection string whenever one or more of the properties of the connection string change or when you want IIS to ignore a connection string defined at a parent level and to use the connection string defined at the current level. For example, change a connection string when a database is moved to a different server.

Prerequisites

For information about the levels at which you can perform this procedure, and the modules, handlers, and permissions that are required to perform this procedure, see Database Connection Strings Feature Requirements (IIS 7).

Exceptions to feature requirements

• None

To edit a database connection string

You can perform this procedure by using the user interface (UI), by running Appcmd.exe commands in a command-line window, by editing configuration files directly, or by writing WMI scripts.

User Interface

To Use the UI

1. Open IIS Manager and navigate to the level you want to manage. For information about opening IIS Manager, see Open IIS Manager (IIS 7). For information about navigating to locations in the UI, see Navigation in IIS Manager (IIS 7).

2. In Features View, double-click Connection Strings.

3. On the Connection Strings page, select the connection string that you want to change.

4. In the Actions pane, click Edit.

5. In the Edit Connection String dialog box, change the properties that you want to change, and then click OK.

Command-line

Change connection string

To change a database connection string, use the following syntax:

**appcmd set config /commit:MACHINE /section:connectionStrings /[name='string'].connectionString:**string

The variable name string is the key to use to access the connection string value that you want to change, and the variable connectionString string is the new connection string value.

Change connection string name

To change the name of a database connection string, use the following syntax:

**appcmd set config /commit:MACHINE /section:connectionStrings /[name='string'].name:**string

The variable [name string**]** is the key to use to access the connection string value that you want to change, and the variable **name **string is the new name for the connection string.

Change default provider for a connection string

To change the default provider of a database connection string, use the following syntax:

**appcmd set config /commit:MACHINE /section:connectionStrings /[name='string'].defaultProvider:**string

The variable name string is the key to use to access the connection string value that you want to change, and the variable providerName string is the name of the ADO.NET provider to use to access the underlying data store.

For more information about Appcmd.exe, see Appcmd.exe (IIS 7).

Configuration

The procedure in this topic affects the following configuration elements:

• <connectionStrings>

For more information about IIS 7 configuration, see IIS 7.0: IIS Settings Schema on MSDN.

WMI

Use the following WMI classes, methods, or properties to perform this procedure:

• ConnectionStringsSection class

For more information about WMI and IIS, see Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) in IIS 7. For more information about the classes, methods, or properties associated with this procedure, see the IIS WMI Provider Reference on the MSDN site.

See Also

Concepts

Configuring Connection Strings in IIS 7