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sql-server-2008vsdbcmd

Unable to load sqlceme35.dll when using vsdbcmd.exe


I'm using vsdbcmd.exe to deploy a database to SQL Server 2008 on Windows 7 x64 and I'm getting an error message saying:

An unexpected failure occuured: Unable to load DLL 'sqlceme35.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E).

I'm not sure why this message appears. The deploy script has nothing to do with SQL CE and the deployment works on other Windows 7 x64 machines.


Solution

  • It's annoying there's no fully standalone way of running vsdbcmd, it relies on various things to import / generate scripts. Depending on the machine you're running it on, you may need to install SQL CE (amongst other things).

    This blog post is the clearest list of dependencies I've found (although a little out of date, as I believe the registry entry is no longer required)

    This MSDN article describes in more detail the "special requirements" for 64bit systems.

    Hope this helps,

    Matt