How to connect to SQL Server LocalDB using Invoke-Sqlcmd?

Question

I have sqlcmd.exe from both SQLServer 2008 and SQLServer 2012:

PS C:\\> Get-Command sqlcmd.exe

Definition
----------
C:\\Program Files\\Microsof         


        

Answer 1

This is code that works for me under adverse conditions (see my comments just after the code). I suspect that simpler code may work in a more common environment, but I haven't dug into it.

The instance pipe times out after a few minutes. You're better off if you can connect using (localdb)\instanceName, because those connections don't seem to time out.

function Get-InstancePipeName ([string] $localDbName)
{
  while (!($pipeName = ((sqllocaldb info $localDbName) -match 'instance pipe name').Split(':', 2)[1].Trim()))
  {
    sqllocaldb start $localDbName | Out-Null
  }
  return $pipeName
}

$scsb   = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionStringBuilder
$scsb.psbase.DataSource = Get-InstancePipeName localDbName # <== put your db name here
$sc     = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $scsb.ConnectionString

$smoSc  = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common.ServerConnection $sc
$smoSvr = New-Object Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server $smoSc
Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $smoSvr -Query 'select 1'

For reasons currently outside my control, the execution environment where this runs is unusual. It's a remote execution environment with an incomplete session context. Also, I had to redefine USERPROFILE to work around some other issues.

[later edit: I recently found a way to extend the timeout - I had to add a RECONFIGURE after the 2nd sp_configure and (as recommended) stop and start the localdb to get it to take effect)]