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Preface

OpenLink ODBC Driver for SQL Server (Express Editon)

OpenLink ODBC Driver for SQL Server (Express Editon) for Mac OS X
OpenLink ODBC Driver for SQL Server (Express Editon) for Windows
Installation Configuration

10.2. OpenLink ODBC Driver for SQL Server (Express Editon) for Windows

10.2.1. Installation

The OpenLink ODBCDriver for Microsoft SQLServer (Express Edition) is distributed as a Windows MSI installer. Simply double click on the installer 'ntl6esql.msi' to commence the installation.

Installer Welcome Dialog for the OpenLink ODBCDriver for Microsoft SQLServer(Express Edition):

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Please read the software license agreement and accept before continuing your installation:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Before installation, you will be prompted for a license file. If a license file already exists on the machine, then select the 'use exisiting file' option. A trial (try) or full (buy) license can be obtained by selecting the 'try and buy' option which loads OpenLink's online try and buy web page:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

If you are using Nortons Anti-Virus Software, you may encouter this warning message. Choose the Allow the Entire Script once option:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

To obtain the trial license, you must be a registered user on the OpenLinkWeb site and login with your username (e-mail address) and password for that user. Click on the 'Shop' link to visit Openlink's online shop cart to purchase a full license, if required:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Click on the 'download license' button to immediatly obtain the license file and save it to your desktop. Alternatively, an auto-generated e-mail will be sent to your registered user's e-mail address with a link to your OpenLinkData Space ( ODS), which contains all trial and full licenses in a Briefcase for download at a later date.

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

You will want to save the file to disk:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Select the license file to be used for the installation:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Make sure that the path to where the license file is located is correct before selecting Next:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Choose to perform a custom, typical, or complete installation of the driver:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

With a custom installation, you can decide the directory where the installation will reside:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Select the features to be installed:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Click the install button to begin installation of the components:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

Installation in progress:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.

The software installation is complete and ready for use:

Figure: 10.2.1.1.


10.2.2. Configuration

To configure an ODBCDSN, run the ODBCAdministrator located in the Administrative Tools section of the Control Panel:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

From either the User or System DSN tab, click on the Add button:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Select the OpenLinkSQLServer ODBCDriver [Express Edition][6.0] from the list presented:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

In the Data Source tab, select a suitable DSN name and optional description for the Data Source to be created:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

The Connection tab requests the minimum parameters required to make a connection to the target database:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Click next to verify that all settings are correct or uncheck the check box to delay testing to a later stage.

The advanced button displays additional, optional parameters that can be configured:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Table: 10.2.2.1.
Tds The version of TDS to be used.(default - '8.0')
Cachemetadata When used with prepareSQL=3, setting this property to true will cause the driver to cache column meta data for SELECT statements. Use with care.(default - false)
Charset Very important setting, determines the byte value to character mapping for CHAR/VARCHAR/TEXT values. Applies for characters from the extended set (codes 128-255). For NCHAR/NVARCHAR/NTEXT values, does not have any effect, since these are stored using Unicode. (default - the character set the server was installed with)
Language Applies for characters from the extended set (codes 128-255). For NCHAR/NVARCHAR/NTEXT values, does not have any effect since these are stored using Unicode. (default - the character set the server was installed with)
Domain Specifies the Windows domain to authenticate in. If present and the user name and password are provided, it uses Windows (NTLM) authentication instead of the usual SQL Server authentication (i.e., the user and password provided are the domain user and password). This allows non-Windows clients to log in to servers, which are only configured to accept Windows authentication.
Instance Named instance to connect to. SQL Server can run multiple so-called 'named instances' (i.e., different server instances, running on different TCP ports) on the same machine. When using Microsoft tools, selecting one of these instances is made by using '[host_name]\[instance_name]' instead of the usual '[host_name]'. You will have to split the two and use the instance name as a property.
AppName Application name. No practical use; it's displayed by Enterprise Manager or Profiler associated with the connection.
ProgName Client library name. No practical use; it's displayed by Enterprise Manager or Profiler associated with the connection.
Wsid Workstation ID. No practical use; it's displayed by Enterprise Manager or Profiler associated with the connection. (default - the client host name)
MacAddress Network interface card MAC address. (default - '000000000000')
SendStringParametersAsUnicode Determines whether string parameters are sent to the SQL Server database in Unicode or in the default character encoding of the database. (default - true)
LastUpdateCount If true, only the last update count will be returned by executeUpdate(). This is useful in case you are updating or inserting into tables that have triggers (such as replicated tables); there's no way to make the difference between an update count returned by a trigger and the actual update count, but the actual update count is always the last, as the triggers execute first. If false, all update counts are returned; use getMoreResults() to loop through them. (default - true)
PrepareSQL This parameter specifies the mechanism used for Prepared Statements. (default - 3 for SQL Server)
PacketSize The network packet size (a multiple of 512). (default - 4096 for TDS 7.0/8.0; 512 for TDS 4.2/5.0)
TcpNoDelay True to enable TCP_NODELAY on the socket; false to disable it. (default - true)
LobBuffer The amount of LOB data to buffer in memory before caching to disk. The value is in bytes for Blob data and chars for Clob data. (default - 32768)
MaxStatements The number of statement prepares each connection should cache. A value of 0 will disable statement caching.(default - 500)
LoginTimeout The amount of time to wait (in seconds) for a successful connection before timing out. If namedPipe is true and loginTimeout is non-zero, the value of loginTimeout is used for the retry timeout when 'All pipe instances are busy' error messages are received while attempting to connect to the server. If namedPipe is true and loginTimeout is zero (the default), a value of 20 seconds is used for the named pipe retry timeout. (default - 0)
SocketTimeout The amount of time to wait (in seconds) for network activity before timing out. Use with care! If a non zero value is supplied, this must be greater than the maximum time that the server will take to answer any query. Once the timeout value is exceeded, the network connection will be closed. This parameter may be useful for detecting dead network connections in a pooled environment. (default - 0)
NamedPipe When set to true, named pipe communication is used to connect to the database instead of TCP/IP sockets. When the os.name system property starts with 'windows' (case-insensitive), named pipes (both local and remote) are accessed through the Windows filesystem by opening a RandomAccessFile to the path. When the SQL Server and the client are on the same machine, a named pipe will usually have better performance than TCP/IP sockets since the network layer is eliminated.
Ssl Specifies if and how to use SSL for secure communication. (default - off)
BatchSize Controls how many statements are sent to the server in a batch. The actual batch is broken up into pieces this large that are sent separately.(default - 0[unlimited] for SQL Server)
UseCursors Instructs the driver to use server side cursors instead of direct selects (AKA firehose cursors) for forward-only read-only result sets (with other types of result sets server- or client-side cursors are always used). (default - false)
BufferMaxMemory Controls the global buffer memory limit for all connections (in kilobytes). When the amount of buffered server response packets reaches this limit, additional packets are buffered to disk; there is however one exception: each Statement gets to buffer at least '[bufferMinPackets]' to memory before this limit is enforced. This means that this limit can and will usually be exceeded. (default - 1024)
BufferMinPackets Controls the minimum number of packets per statement to buffer to memory. Each Statement will buffer at least this many packets before being forced to use a temporary file if the [bufferMaxMemory] is reached, to ensure good performance even when one Statement caches a very large amount of data. (default - 8)
UseLOBs Controls whether large types (IMAGE and TEXT/NTEXT) should be mapped by default (when using getObject()) to LOBs . The default type constant returned is also controlled by this property: BLOB for IMAGE and CLOB for TEXT/NTEXT when true, LONGVARBINARY for IMAGE and LONGVARCHAR for TEXT/NTEXT when false. (default - true)

As indicated above, the parameters on the options and preferences tabs are not required for a basic connection.

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

Click on the Test Data Sourcebutton to verify that a successful connection can be made to the database.

Figure: 10.2.2.1.

When you click finish, you will go back to the ODBCData Source Administrator, and you should see the new DSN in the list of available DSN's:

Figure: 10.2.2.1.