OpenLink ODBC Driver for Microsoft SQL Server (Lite Edition) Installation and Configuration

Review Preinstallation Documentation: Pre-Installation Configuration for Microsoft SQL Server Lite Edition Drivers (Mac OS X)

Installation

The OpenLink ODBC Driver for Microsoft SQL Server for Mac OS X is distributed in a single disk image (.dmg) file, which contains a Macintosh Installer mpkg.

Double-click the mpkg to start the installation process.

You will encounter a warning message that will ask you if you are sure that you want to install the software. Click Continue.

The installer will display a Welcome message. Click "Continue."

The next screen will display the Read Me file, including any last- minute updates to these documents. Please read carefully and click "Continue" when finished.

The next screen will display the License Agreement for the OpenLink Single-Tier Driver for ODBC. Please read and click "Continue."

You will be prompted to "Agree" to continue the installation or "Disagree" to abort.

You will be asked to select a Destination Volume. Generally, this should be your Mac OS X boot volume. Click on the desired disk icon and then click "Continue."

You may now choose the Easy Install, or if you are an experienced user, you may Customize which components are installed. OpenLink generally recommends the Easy Install.

If you have installed OpenLink or iODBC components in the past, click "Upgrade" to continue; otherwise, click "Install."

If you chose the custom option, select which of the following components to install.

You must have an Administration username and password to install the OpenLink driver. Enter your Mac OS X Username and Password.

You will be shown a graphical progress bar as the Installation progresses, followed by System Optimization.

You will need to locate the license file. Click "Try or Buy License" to obtain evaluation or commercial licenses from the OpenLink Web site. Click "Use Existing License" to select a license on the local file system.

When the process is complete, you will be told that the software was successfully installed. Click "Close" and your new database driver for ODBC is ready for use.

Configuration

To configure an ODBC DSN, run the OpenLink iODBC Administrator located in the /Applications/iODBC folder:

Click the System DSN tab:

Click the Add button. Then, select the OpenLink SQL Server Lite Driver from the list of available drivers:

Click Finish.

The Data Source tab prompts for a DSN name, description, and information that identifies the target Microsoft SQL Server DBMS. Select the Unicode version of the driver if and only if you are working with multi-byte character sets, as unnecessary translations can significantly affect ODBC performance.

• DSN - A brief and meaningful title for your Data Source Name

• Description - An optional description for your Data Source Name

• Server Name - Select the drop down list box to invoke the driver's Dynamic discovery of Microsoft SQL Server instances on the network and choose the desired instance.

Use the "Advanced" button to manually configure a connection if the Microsoft SQL Server instance could not be dynamically located, as detailed below.

• Server Type - An OpenLink proprietary parameter that associates the connection with a particular TDS version.

• Hostname - The hostname or IP address on which Microsoft SQL Server listens

• Port number - The TCP port on which Microsoft SQL Server lists

• Server Name - Microsoft SQL Server instance name on the specified host. A Microsoft SQL Server instance can also be specified by appending "\InstanceName" to the ServerName i.e., "ServerName\InstanceName"

• Mirror Host - The name of the Failover Server hosting the mirrored database if configured

• Use strong encryption of data - Enable SSL encryption of data between driver and database

• Use Mars - Multiple Active Result Sets enables the concurrent processing of multiple statements/queries and/or result sets on a single connection

• Verify Server Certificate - Verify the Database Server SSL certificate against the one specified in the "CA file" field

• CA file - Specify the location of a Valid SSL Certificate for use during the connection

Click OK to continue.

The Connection Tab takes a combination of required and optional parameters required to make a connection to the target database:

• User name - A valid Microsoft SQL Server user name

• Choose a database, charset, language to use with the data source -

• Password - A valid Microsoft SQL Server password

• Database - The Microsoft SQL Server database

• Language -

• Character set -

• Disable character set translation -

Click Continue.

The Options tab enables you to set some standard and Microsoft SQL Server specific parameters.

• Row Buffer Size - This attribute specifies the number of records to be transported over the network in a single network hop. Values can range from 1 to 99.

• Hide Login Dialog - Suppresses the ODBC "Username" and "Password" login dialog boxes when interacting with your ODBC DSN from within an ODBC compliant application.

• Read Only connection - Specifies whether the connection is "Read-only." Make sure the checkbox is unchecked to request a "Read/Write" connection.

• TDS packet size - A value that determines the number of bytes per network packet transferred from the database server to the client. The correct setting of this attribute can improve performance. When set to 0, the initial default, the driver uses the default packet size as specified in the Sybase server configuration. When set to -1, the driver computes the maximum allowable packet size on the first connect to the data source and saves the value in the system information. When set to x, an integer from 1 to 10, which indicates a multiple of 512 bytes (for example, Packet Size of 6 means to set the packet size to 6 * 512 equal 3072 bytes). For you to take advantage of this connection attribute, you must configure the System 10 server for a maximum network packet size greater than or equal to the value you specified for Packet Size.

• Prepare Method- This option is specific to the TDS Driver for Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server Servers. It can take the values None, Partial Full (connectoptions -O [0, 1, 2] respectively). It is used to determine whether stored procedures are created on the server for calls to SQLPrepare. More
  
• No Quoted Identifiers- This option indicates that the underlying driver does not support quoted identifiers, which is required for Jet engine based products like MS Access.

• Use ANSI nulls, padding and warnings- This option affects TDS agent & Lite Driver connections to Microsoft SQLvServer databases. Microsoft SQL Server connectivity is not affected. More

• Map Serializable to Snapshot isolation level - Enable Snapshot transaction isolation level in the driver. Snapshot Isolation is a new transaction isolation level available in Microsoft SQL Server 2005

• SQL_DBMS Name - Manually overrides the SQLGetInfo(SQL_DBMS_NAME) response returned by the driver. This is required for products like Microsoft InfoPath for which the return the value should be "SQL Server".

Click Continue to view additional preferences that can be set for the connection.

• Initialization SQL - Lets you specify a file containing SQL statements that will be run automatically against the database upon connection.

• Cursor Sensitivity - Enables or disables the row version cache used with dynamic cursors. When dynamic cursor sensitivity is set high, the Cursor Library calculates checksums for each row in the current rowset and compares these with the checksums (if any) already stored in the row version cache for the same rows when fetched previously. If the checksums differ for a row, the row has been updated since it was last fetched and the row status flag is set to SQL_ROW_UPDATED. The row version cache is then updated with the latest checksums for the rowset. From the user's point of view, the only visible difference between the two sensitivity settings is that a row status flag can never be set to SQL_ROW_UPDATED when the cursor sensitivity is low. (The row status is instead displayed as SQL_ROW_SUCCESS.) In all other respects, performance aside, the two settings are the same. Deleted rows don't appear in the rowset. Updates to the row since the row was last fetched are reflected in the row data, and inserted rows appear in the rowset, if their keys fall within the span of the rowset. If your application does not need to detect the row status SQL_ROW_UPDATED, you should leave the 'High Cursor Sensitivity' checkbox unchecked, as performance is improved. The calculation and comparison of checksums for each row fetched carries an overhead. If this option is enabled, the table oplrvc must have been created beforehand using the appropriate script for the target database.

• Max Rows Override - Allows you to define a limit on the maximum number of rows to be returned from a query. The default value of 0 means no limit

• Enable Microsoft Jet Engine options -

• Disable autocommit - Changes the default commit behaviour of the OpenLink driver. The default mode is AutoCommit (box unchecked).

• Disable rowset size limit - Removes OpenLink's default 100 rowset restriction

• Defer fetching of long data - Defers fetching of LONG (BINARY, BLOB etc.) data unless explicitly requested in a query. This provides significant performance increases when fields in query do not include LONG data fields.

• Multiple Active Statements Emulation -

Click the Finish button to save your new Data Source Name.

Proceed to Commercial Licensing Documentation:

Should you decide to purchase a commercial license at the end of your evaluation period, be sure to consult our documentation which explains the placement and uptake of commercial license files and the use of our OpenLink License Manager technology: License Technology & Application