Cannot see External Content Type when debugging BDC Model project

Question

I am trying to create a basic External Content Type in Visual Studio 2010 that returns data from a database. I've created the BDC Model, pressed F5 to deploy, but I cannot see the external content type in my site or farm.

Here are the steps I have taken:

1. Create a new SharePoint Web Application for testing in my farm.

2. Open Visual Studio 2010, create a new BDC Model and specify my new web app for testing.

3. Hit F5 to deploy (no deployment errors)

4. When my debugged session of IE comes up, I go to create a new External List.

5. When specifying the External Content Type for the List, no ECT's are available.

I've gone into Central Administration >> Service Applications >> BDC Service, and I do not see my external content type there either.

When looking at Central Admin >> Settings >> Farm Solutions, I see my WSP in the list but it has a status of "Not Deployed". If I try and deploy it, Central Admin hangs and it does not complete.

Am I missing a step? Is there anything special I have to do to package the BDC Model so that it deploys?

Answer 1

We figured out the problem. It was a combination of two things.

First, I was doing this development on a multi-server farm and, when deploying from Visual Studio, it uses the "Local" flag to deploy to only one server. This causes things to get out of balance.

Second, our farm was apparently unstable. Some services were not running and one of our web front ends had a corrupted virtual image. I now have my own standalone VM and things are working as expected. Thanks for the suggestions!