I was able to solve by following the steps of answering a SOen question.
Link: link
Steps with some changes to the links, following the original.
Note: Follow the steps in the same order.
Uninstall / remove "Connector / NET" and "MySQL for Visual Studio" if installed.
Install "MySQL for Visual Studio" v2.0.5 m4 ( MySQL for Visual Studio ). Note: Install MySQL for Visual Studio before the Connector / NET.
Install "Connector / NET" v6.9.11 ( Connector / Net ).
Note: I tried to use Connector / NET v6.8, v6.10 and v8 first, but none of them worked with Visual Studio 2017 and ADO.Net. Here you can find all Connector Versions and Compatibilities with Visual Studio IDE but so far this list is inaccurate. (True)
Note: Until this step you should be covered, but you will encounter Entity Framework issues, follow the next steps to completely configure your environment and you should be ready to go.
Download and install "EntityFramework" v6.2.0 through NuGet, going to the Project Tab / Manage NuGet Packages / Browse - > Entity Framework.
Add references to C: \ Program Files (x86) \ MySQL \ Connector.NET 6.9.11 \ Assemblies \ v4.5 \ MySql.Data.dll and C: \ Program Files (x86) \ MySQL \ Connector.NET 6.9.11 \ Assemblies \ v4.5 \ MySql.Data.Entity.EF6.dll; by right-clicking References within Solution Explorer and selecting Add Reference / Browse - > Browse button.
Add information from the MySQL EF6 provider within the App.config under entity structure providers, as follows:
<entityFramework>
<providers>
<provider invariantName="MySql.Data.MySqlClient"
type="MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlProviderServices, MySql.Data.Entity.EF6" />
</providers>
</entityFramework>
Rebuild the project by going to Build tab / Rebuild ProjectName.
And that's it. VS2017 is ready to go. I hope this works for everyone, as it did for me today.