Windows Service cannot locate Data Provider

Question

I have a windows service which uses the Entity Framework in combination with ODAC. The service simply polls a table within a database to check for records ready for processing.

The service works as expected on my development PC but not when deployed to the server. The server has the same ODAC components installed and a console application which executes the same code works on both development PC and the server.

The error message I receive from the server for the windows service is as follows:

System.ArgumentException: The specified store provider cannot be found in the configuration, or is not valid. ---> System.ArgumentException: Unable to find the requested .Net Framework Data Provider. It may not be installed. at System.Data.EntityClient.EntityConnection.GetFactory(String providerString)

Googling this error message states that there is something not installed / configured properly with regards to the Data Provider, but then the console application works fine, so im not convinced this is the cause of the problem.

Any ideas are welcome and if more info is required, please ask.

Answer 1

It would appear that this was something to do with the version of ODP.NET I was using. 32bit & 64bit versions weren't installed correctly and everything seems to work fine now i have re installed.