Unable to connect .NET Core MVC Web API with SQL Server on Linux

I am using .NET Core MVC API (.NET Core 6.0), actually just C# in general.

I need to deploy a .NET API on a linux server. However, it seems to that I can't connect to the SQL Server that is running on the same server.

This is the error from .NET

fail: Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.ExceptionHandlerMiddleware[1] An unhandled exception has occurred while executing the request. System.Exception: Cannot connect to SQL Server Browser. Ensure SQL Server Browser has been started. ---> System.Net.Internals.SocketExceptionFactory+ExtendedSocketException (00000001, 11): Resource temporarily unavailable at System.Net.Dns.GetHostEntryOrAddressesCore(String hostName, Boolean justAddresses, AddressFamily addressFamily, ValueStopwatch stopwatch)

This is the error I get from curl

{"error":true,"message":"Cannot connect to SQL Server Browser. Ensure SQL Server Browser has been started."}

Keep in mind that both the API and the database are on the same server. I think the problem comes from .NET. I am able to connect to the database on the server using the API locally.

This is the connection string in my appsettings.json

"ConnectionStrings": {
    "ConnStr": "Data Source=<PUBLICIP>;Initial Catalog=<DBNAME>;User Id=<USER>;Password=<PASS>;Integrated Security=False;ApplicationIntent=ReadWrite;MultiSubnetFailover=False",=
    "lockerConStr": ""
  }

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Things I have tried:

• Changed Data Source to (local) - (doesn't work)
• Added Encrypt= false;Trusted_connection=True; - (doesn't work)
• Connect to the SQL Server from local version of the .NET API (successful)
• Connect to the SQL Server using a python script running from the same server (successful)
• Specified Driver in the connection string (doesn't work)

The python script (not sure if this would help)

import pyodbc

conn = pyodbc.connect('Driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};'
                      'Server=<PUBLICIP>;'
                      'Database=<DBNAME>;'
                      'UID=<USER>;'
                      'PWD=<PWD>;'
                      'Trusted_Connection=no;')

cursor = conn.cursor()
cursor.execute('SELECT * FROM users')