Short Answer

It takes about 120 seconds for SQL Azure to create a database. That is why you are timing out. So, increase the CommandTimeout. One way is to drop a single line of code into your DbContext constructor.

public MyContext() : base("name=MyContext"){    // three minute command timeout    this.Database.CommandTimeout = 180;}

Troubleshooting Steps

I just recreated the exception using a brand new SQL Azure server in West US. When I turned on Entity Framework logging, the output showed that the Create database statement caused the timeout. Here is the log output.

Opened connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:14 AM -07:00select cast(serverproperty('EngineEdition') as int)-- Executing at 9/8/2015 9:24:14 AM -07:00-- Completed in 40 ms with result: SqlDataReaderClosed connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:14 AM -07:00Opened connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:15 AM -07:00IF db_id(N'mvp1') IS NOT NULL SELECT 1 ELSE SELECT Count(*) FROM sys.databases WHERE [name]=N'mvp1'-- Executing at 9/8/2015 9:24:15 AM -07:00-- Completed in 306 ms with result: 1Closed connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:15 AM -07:00Opened connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:15 AM -07:00drop database [mvp1]-- Executing at 9/8/2015 9:24:15 AM -07:00-- Completed in 10635 ms with result: -1Closed connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:26 AM -07:00Opened connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:26 AM -07:00create database [mvp1]-- Executing at 9/8/2015 9:24:26 AM -07:00-- Failed in 30050 ms with error: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.Closed connection at 9/8/2015 9:24:56 AM -07:00

To troubleshoot further, I connected to the SQL Azure database with SQL Server Management Studio and ran the log output. The commands succeeded but took 1:53 to complete (just about two minutes). That exceeds the default DbContext command timeout.

The fix: increase the DbContext command timeout to exceed that duration. Bingo. It worked.

Working Console App on My Computer

packages.config

The only package is EntityFramework version 6.1.3.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><packages>  <package id="EntityFramework" version="6.1.3" targetFramework="net452" /></packages>

App.config

This config uses the interceptors section to log the generated T-SQL. That enabled me to run the logged T-SQL on SQL Server Management Studio to determine how long it takes to create the database.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><configuration>  <configSections>    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false"/>  </configSections>  <startup>    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5.2" />  </startup>  <connectionStrings>        <add name="MyContext"          connectionString="Server=tcp:d01kzjctcf.database.windows.net,1433;Database=mvp1;User ID=mvp@d01kzjctcf;Password=3pN*iV55XmtW;Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;Connection Timeout=120;"         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />  </connectionStrings>  <entityFramework>    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework" />    <providers>      <provider invariantName="System.Data.SqlClient" type="System.Data.Entity.SqlServer.SqlProviderServices, EntityFramework.SqlServer" />    </providers>    <interceptors>      <interceptor type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.Interception.DatabaseLogger, EntityFramework">        <parameters>          <parameter value="C:\Temp\LogOutput.txt"/>        </parameters>      </interceptor>    </interceptors>  </entityFramework></configuration>

Program.cs

The demo simply drops and creates the database, seeds it with books, selects all the books, and outputs the number of books to the console.

using System;using System.Data.Entity;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Data.Entity.SqlServer;public class Program{    public static void Main()    {        Database.SetInitializer<MyContext>(new MyContextInitializer());        var count = 0;        using (var context = new MyContext())        {            count = context.Books.CountAsync().Result;        }        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("There are {0} books.", count));        Console.ReadLine();    }}public class MyContextInitializer : DropCreateDatabaseAlways<MyContext>{    protected override void Seed(MyContext context)    {        context.Database.CommandTimeout = 0;        var books = new List<Book>        {            new Book() {Name = "War and Pease", Author = "Tolstoy",Price=19.95m },            new Book() {Name = "As I Lay Dying", Author = "Faulkner",Price=99.95m },            new Book() {Name = "Harry Potter 1", Author = "J.K. Rowling",Price=19.95m },            new Book() {Name = "Pro Win 8", Author = "Liberty",Price=49.95m },            new Book() {Name = "Book one", Author = "Author1",Price=10.95m },            new Book() {Name = "Book two", Author = "Author2",Price=20.95m },            new Book() {Name = "Book three", Author = "Author3",Price=30.95m }        };        books.ForEach(b => context.Books.Add(b));        context.SaveChanges();        base.Seed(context);    }}public class MyContext : DbContext{    public MyContext() : base("name=MyContext")    {        this.Database.CommandTimeout = 180;    }    public DbSet<Book> Books { get; set; }}public class Book{    public int Id { get; set; }    public string Name { get; set; }    public string Author { get; set; }    public decimal Price { get; set; }}

See Also

Set database timeout in Entity Framework

How do I view the SQL generated by the Entity Framework?

Closing Thoughts

A global CommandTimeout of three minutes is probably appropriate only for development. In production, you will probably want to decrease that or to set it only for certain specific long-running commands such as database creation.