Sql Server "network Path Not Found" Randomly And Infrequently Occurring Across Environments

Similar (if not same question as) Network path not found exception encountered randomly, but I have code to reproduce the issue so I want to ask again as it appears to be a real is

Solution 1:

The issue was with named pipes. It might be expressed more within a VM (speculation from the links below). Using TCP/IP by adding tcp: within the connection string and specifying the port resolved the issue.

Some related cases:

1. https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/24165/sql-server-should-we-use-tcp-or-named-pipes-or-use-the-default
2. http://devproconnections.com/database-development/sql-server-performance-tip-favoring-tcpip-over-named-pipes
3. https://serverfault.com/questions/30955/sporatic-connection-issues-connecting-to-sql-2005-named-pipes-vs-tcp-ip-issue/31024#31024
4. https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/29106/named-pipes-connection-closed-when-subjected-to-load

Conclusion, always use TCP/IP explicitly unless the SQL Server is on the same machine. You can configure the SQL Server to not accept named pipes as well, but going forward I will just be adding it to my connection strings as well.