Hello. We read a number of things about referencing SQL Server SMO from Visual Studio but still don't have the definite answers we need. So, here it goes...

A number of years ago we created a C# application using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005. In that application, we added .NET references to a number of SQL Server SMO objects, and everything worked fine. Those references were:

Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo GAC 9.0.242.0 Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo GAC 9.0.242.0 Microsoft.SqlServer.SqlEnum GAC 9.0.242.0

We have now migrated to Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2. However, when we try to reference those same SMO objects for SQL Server 2008 R2, they don't appear in the .NET references tab. We're wanting to reference the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of those same SMO assemblies for our upgraded C# application.

On our development machines, we have SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer installed with all options, including the SDK such that the assemblies are found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\SDK\Assemblies.

So, my first questions are: Are we supposed to do file references to the SMO assemblies instead of .NET references in Visual Studio 2010 w/ SQL Server 2008 R2? Or, is there some problem with our development machines such that the SMO assemblies are not appearing in the .NET references tab?

Next, our production machines will have SQL Server 2008 R2 Workgroup installed with the client tools option selected, thus providing those same SMO assemblies in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\SDK\Assemblies.

So, the next questions are: When we release to production, are we supposed to redistribute the SMO assemblies with our application? Or, will our application work on the production servers without redistributing the SMO assemblies (since the client tools/SMO assemblies have been installed)?

What else?????

Thanks for the help!