title: Cannot connect Strongloop / Loopback datasource to a SQL Server Express database
body: <p>Within a newly created loopback framework running <code>slc arc</code> I am attempting to connect to an existing SQL Server Express database at <code>ALEX\SQLEXPRESS</code> (I've also tried variations like <code>LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS</code>).</p>
  
  <p>But I am getting the error message: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Oops! Something is wrong<br>
    Failed to connect to ALEX:undefined in 15000ms</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I've also tried <code>ALEX\\SQLEXPRESS</code> since it looks like the <code>undefined</code> might be caused by the slash.</p>
  
  <p>Unfortunately no luck. Does anyone know how to make this work?</p>
  
  <p>These are the settings</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zsohr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zsohr.png" alt="the settings"></a></p>
  
  <p>This is the connector that gets created in the folders:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{
    "db": {
    "name": "db",
    "connector": "memory"
    },
    "mssql": {
      "host": "ALEX\\SQLEXPRESS",
      "database": "bbdb-dev",
      "password": "********",
      "name": "mssql",
      "user": "sa",
      "connector": "mssql"
    }
  }
  </code></pre>