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Last Updated: March 13, 1998

 
ODBC Frequently Asked Questions

 
Microsoft Universal Data Access
 
 
MDACOLE DBADORDSODBCOLE DB for OLAP


ODBC

Q. Where can I get ODBC?

A. ODBC is part of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). ODBC can be obtained from the Free Downloads page on this site.

Q. How can I redistribute "just" ODBC 3.5?

A. The OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers is now a core component of ODBC 3.5 and must be installed in order to run ODBC. This redistribution setup contains the minimum configuration necessary to install and run ODBC. For more information on the dependency between OLE DB and ODBC, see the following article:

ARTICLE-ID: Q178852
TITLE: INFO: OLE DB Provider for ODBC Now an ODBC 3.5 Core Component

For more information on how to acquire the redistribution for MDAC, which includes ODBC, the OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, and ADO and RDS, see the following:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/downloads.htm

Q. Is there an MDAC redistribution with just ODBC or OLE DB?

A. No. The actual size of ADO and RDS within the redistribution is negligible. The bulk of the size comes from ODBC, or various ODBC drivers.

Q. How do I find Knowledge Base (KB) Articles for ODBC?

A. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/support. If you haven’t been to this site before, you will need to register (once) to proceed. After completing registration, select "Support Online" to query the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base. Select "ODBC", and enter the article q-number (if you know it), appropriate keywords, or text that will help you find the article. You may find the following article helpful in searching for ODBC articles:

ARTICLE-ID: Q150286
TITLE: How to Search for ODBC Articles by Article Topic/Keyword

Q. Do you recommend any ODBC KB articles in particular?

A. Of course we do!

Q150286: How to Search for ODBC Articles by Article Topic/Keyword

Q170769: PRB: "ODBC Resource DLL Is a Different Version Than ..." Error

Q. Where do I obtain the latest 16- or 32-bit version of the SQL Server driver?

A. The 16-bit and 32-bit SQL Server drivers are distributed on the SQL Server CD. The 16-bit driver is contained in the \Clients\Win16\ODBC directory of the CD. The 32-bit driver is installed automatically on the NT Server that runs SQL Server. If you need to install the 32-bit SQL Server driver on another machine, you can use Setup.exe in the directory I386 or Mips or Alpha or PPC ODBC.

If you have upgraded SQL Server using a service pack upgrade then you also need to upgrade the clients with the new SQL Server driver that came with the service pack.

For 32 bit clients that currently have the SQL Server driver installed:

  1. Shut down all applications using the SQL Server Driver.
  2. Copy sqlsrv32.dll to the \winnt\system32 directory on NT or the \windows\system directory on Win95.
For 16 bit clients that currently have the SQL Server Driver installed:
  1. Shut down all applications using the SQL Server Driver.
  2. Copy sqlsrvr.dll to the \windows directory.

Q. Where do I obtain the latest 32-bit version of the ORACLE driver?

A. To get the latest 32 bit version of the ORACLE driver, install the MDAC components from the Free Downloads page on this site.

Note: Please read the system requirements prior to installing these components.

Q. Where do I obtain the latest 16-bit version of the ORACLE driver?

A. Please contact your database vendor. Microsoft does not supply a 16 bit driver for Oracle at this time.

Please note that there are no planned updates to the 16-bit versions of the ODBC Desktop Database drivers. Please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q140495.

Q. Where do I obtain the latest 32-bit versions of the Access, Paradox, dBASE, FoxPro, Excel, and Text drivers?

A. To get the latest 32 bit versions of the Desktop drivers, install the MDAC components from the Free Downloads page on this site.

Note: Please read the system requirements prior to installing these components. If your system does not meet the requirements, you need to use the ODBC 3.0 version of the Desktop drivers. See Q159674. To get the 3.0 version of the Desktop drivers download WX1350 from: ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles

Q. Where do I obtain the latest 16-bit versions of the Access, Paradox, dBASE, FoxPro, Excel, and Text drivers?

A. Customers in the US and Canada may order the ODBC driver pack on diskette. Note: item and shipping and handling charges apply. Or, you can call Microsoft at 1-800-360-7561 to order the ODBC 2.0 Desktop Database Driver Pack. Customers outside of the US and Canada should contact your local subsidiary.

Please note that there are no planned updates to the 16-bit versions of the ODBC Desktop Database drivers. Please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q140495.

Q. How do I obtain the ODBC 3.0 SDK?

A. For a limited time, the ODBC 3.0 SDK is available for download from the Web. Go to the download page to download your copy.

Q. Where can I get sample code for SQLTables and SQLColumns?

A. Right here! Just download a compressed file and use tbdetal -d to extract the project files. This project will run under VC41 and VC42.

Q. How do I check the current version of the SQL Server Driver?

A. You can check the version of the driver by right clicking on the sqlsrv32.dll and selecting property, version. Or from the ODBC 3.0 or higher version Administrator by going to the ODBC Drivers tab. From the 16 bit ODBC Data Source Administrator Select Drivers, SQL Server, About.

Q. My application uses ODBC and it is failing. How do I determine what ODBC call is not working correctly?

A. Starting with the ODBC 3.0 Driver manager, a tracing option was added to trace application calls to the ODBC API. To turn ODBC tracing on:

  1. Shut down the application you want to trace.
  2. Go to Control Panel, Double click on the ODBC32 icon.
  3. Select the Tracing tab
  4. Change the log file path to something more meaningful than SQL.log
  5. Select "One time Only" radio button.
  6. Click the Start Tracing now button.
  7. Try to make the application fail as soon as possible.
  8. Shut down the application.
  9. Go back to steps 1-4, and click the "Stop Tracing Now" button.

Examine the output of the trace.

Q. My Visual Basic application fails with the message "ODBC Call Failed " or with the message "ODBC Call Failed -3146". How do I debug this?

A. Follow the steps for using ODBC tracing from the ODBC Driver manager. Examine the output of the trace to determine what call is failing. Otherwise, change your Visual Basic application to include an error handler that will display a message box with the appropriate information. Also see the following knowledge base article for more information:

HOWTO: Get More Information on the ODBC Call Failed Error
Q161288

Q. Is there a Microsoft White Paper that explains how to use ODBC with SQL Server?

A. Download the whitepaper "Using ODBC with Microsoft SQL Server".

http://backoffice.microsoft.com/downtrial/moreinfo/sqldrk.asp

Q. How do I configure my ODBC driver for SQL Server when I need to deal with DBCS?

A. From the SQL Server ODBC Setup dialog box, uncheck both boxes of Use ANSI Quoted Identifiers (in the Login section) and Convert OEM To ANSI Characters (in the Translation section).

Q. I get an error message "The odbc resource dll (<path>\<filename>) is a different version that the (<path>\filename). You need to reinstall the odbc components to ensure proper operation" How do I resolve this?

A. Many applications install ODBC, including Visual InterDev, Active Server Pages, Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3, and many others. During the installation of ODBC, a service or application was using one or more ODBC files. The files that were in use could not be overwritten, causing a version mismatch between the files that were in use and either the ODBC Driver Manager or the ODBC Administrator.

Because the ODBC 3.0 and 3.5 Driver Manager performs automatic version checking between itself and the other ODBC core components, it detects the version mismatch and begins generating a warning. See the following knowledge base article for more information:

PRB: "ODBC Resource DLL Is a Different Version Than ..." Error
ID: Q170769

Q. What is ODBC Connection pooling?

A. Please refer to the KB Article:
[Q169470] INF: Frequently Asked Questions About ODBC Connection Pooling

Q. How do I enable connection pooling in an ODBC Application ?

A. Please refer to the KB Article:
[Q164221] INF: How to Enable Connection Pooling in an ODBC Application

Q. My SQL query works from ISQL/W, but not from ODBC. How do I resolve this?

A. When you use the ODBC drivers that ship with SQL Server version 6.0 or later, SQL commands sometimes may appear to work differently in ODBC clients from how they work in either DBLIB clients or the SQL Server client utilities, such as isql, ISQL/w, and the Enterprise Manager query analyzer window. In most cases, these differences are simply due to options set by the Microsoft ODBC SQL Server using the Transact-SQL SET command, and if the same options are set in the DBLIB clients they exhibit the same behavior as the ODBC client.

Please refer to the KB article :
[Q135533] INF: Differences in SQL Behavior Between ODBC and ISQL

Q. I am getting the error message "[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Connection is busy with results for another hstmt". How do I resolve this?

A. The most probable cause of this message is that the application has more than one active statement handle on the same connection and serverside cursors are not being used. Either the "pending resultsets" have to be processed or serverside cursors need to be used. For detailed information, please refer to the article : [Q140896] INF: Multiple Active Microsoft SQL Server Statements

Q. I am getting the error message [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver] Unable to load communication module. Driver has not been correctly installed." How do I resolve this?

A. The most probable cause of this message is that SQL Server driver could not load the SQL Server client side network library. This usually means that the SQL Server netlib dll is not currently in the path.

To connect using :

TCP/IP sockets - 32 bit clients must have dbmssocn.dll, dbmssoc3.dll for 16 bit clients.

Named Pipes - 32 bit clients must have dbnmpntw.dll, dbnmp3.dll for 16 bit clients.

Novell SPX/IPX - 32 bit clients must have dbmsspxn.dll, dbmsspx3.dll for 16 bit clients.

Multiprotocol - 32 bit clients must have dbmsrpcn.dll, dbmsrpc3.dll for 16 bit clients.

For detailed information, please refer to the article:
[Q140895] INF: Diagnostic Tips for the Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver

Q. How does the application using Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver process the stored procedure return codes and output parameters to an ODBC application ?

A. For detailed information, please refer to the article:
[Q152174] INF: Output Parameters, Return Codes and the ODBC Driver

Q. What do I need to do for redistributing/installing the driver manager and a driver ?

A. For custom setup programs :
For ODBC3.0 SDK and above, several of the Installer functions have been removed, and others have been redesigned. The Installer API has been changed to make it more platform independent. For example, functions in the Installer API (such as SQLInstallODBC) that duplicated the work of the Windows SDK Setup program have been removed. In general, it is now the responsibility of the Setup program to copy files during installation. For a sample installation program, Please refer to the article [Q168052] INF: ODBC 3.0 Driver Manager and Driver Installation and the ODBC3.0 SDK guide.

For prepackaged setup or redist programs :
WX1350 (For ODBC 3.0 core components and desktop drivers). For detailed information please refer to the article : [Q139487] WX1220: ODBC 32-Bit Drivers Appnote w/Desktop Drivers Ver. 3.4

MDAC redistribution setup (For latest drivers and components)
The location http://www.microsoft.com/data/odbc/ will have the latest MDAC drivers. These driver will be updated periodically.

Q. What is the relationship of INSTCAT.SQL to the odbc driver for SQLServer?

A. Please refer to the article:
[Q137636] INF: Relationship of the ODBC Driver to INSTCAT.SQL

Q. I am getting the error message "The ODBC catalog stored procedures installed on server MySQLServerName are version 6.50.193; version 07.00.0324 or later is required to ensure proper operation. Please contact your system administrator" using MDAC SQLServer driver. How do I resolve this?

A. Please refer to the article :
[Q178132] ODBC Client Error After Connecting Using MDAC SQL Server Driver

Q. IIS queries to SQLServer are generating error 1326. How do I resolve this?

A. Please refer to article:
[Q152828] INF: IIS Queries to SQL Server Generate Error 1326

Q. I am getting the error message "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified" within Active Server Pages. How do I resolve this?

A. Please refer to article:
[Q169377] INF: How to Access SQL Server Within Active Server Pages


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