I keep getting this error message pop up in Visual Studio – “A member of the db_owner role must use the Visual Studio database diagramming functionality in order to set up the required database diagramming objects on the SQL Server.”

Typically it would happen whenever I drag a table from the Server Explorer onto the LINQ To Sql designer dbml. The error displays, and then after that the Server Explorer window locks up with the Windows 7 hourglass aka the toilet bowl. I can keep using Visual Studio but I can’t do anything in Server Explorer so I eventually have to restart Visual Studio 2010.

I was a bit confused because 1. I’m a dbo, and 2. I’d already setup diagramming in SQL Server Management Studio 2008.

I eventually realised – the solution I’m working on has two DB connections in Server Explorer – my application’s main db for settings etc (which is the one I’m working with when the error is thrown), and another read-only external database which my application reads data from. That external db doesn’t have diagramming set up yet so I presume VS is complaining about that.

There are two workarounds – 1. ask a dbo to set up diagramming on the other db, or 2. remove the connection to the other db from Server Explorer.

I did option 2, and the downside is I have to re-add the connection whenever I want to update my dbml. Fortunately I don’t have to do that very often.