Connect Using ODBC

Overview

Application developers can use MariaDB Connector/ODBC to establish a data source for client connections with MariaDB Cloud.

The method for configuring the data source varies between operating systems.

Configuring a Data Source on Linux

1. Configure unixODBC to recognize the driver by creating a file called MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.iniwith the relevant driver definition.

   For example, on CentOS / RHEL / Rocky Linux:

   [MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver]
   Description = MariaDB Connector/ODBC v.3.1
   Driver      = /usr/lib64/libmaodbc.so

   On Debian / Ubuntu:

   [MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver]
   Description = MariaDB Connector/ODBC v.3.1
   Driver      = /usr/lib/libmaodbc.so

2. Install the driver using the odbcinst command.

   For example:

   sudo odbcinst -i -d -f MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.ini

3. Determine the connection parameters for your database.

4. Configure unixODBC to connect to the data source by creating a file called MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.iniwith the relevant data source parameters. Be sure to specify SSLVERIFY = 1 for your MariaDB Cloud database.

   For example:

   # Data Source for unixODBC
   [My-Test-Server]
   Description = Describe your database setup here
   Driver      = MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver
   Trace       = Yes
   TraceFile   = /tmp/trace.log
   SERVER      = localhost
   SOCKET      = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
   USER        = db_user
   PASSWORD    = db_user_password
   DATABASE    = test

   # Data Source for unixODBC
   [My-Test-Server]
   Description = Describe your database setup here
   Driver      = MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver
   Trace       = Yes
   TraceFile   = /tmp/trace.log
   SERVER      = example.skysql.com
   PORT        = 3306
   SSLVERIFY   = 1
   USER        = db_user
   PASSWORD    = db_user_password
   DATABASE    = test

   • Customize the values of the parameters with the relevant information for your environment.

   • If you have SSL certificate files, you can add the following parameters to your data source file:

   SSLCA = /path/to/ca-cert.pem
   SSLKEY = /path/to/client-key.pem
   SSL_CERT = /path/to/client-cert.pem

5. Install the unixODBC data source template file:

   $ sudo odbcinst -i -s -h -f MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini

6. Test the data source My-Test-Serverconfigured in the MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini file using the isql command. If you see the output below, you have successfully connected to your Sky database.

   $ isql -v My-Test-Server
   +-------------------------+
   | Connected!              |
   | sql-statement           |
   | help[tablename]         |
   | quit                    |
   +-------------------------+
   SQL>

7. To select your new data source in your application, select the data source with the name that you configured, which is My-Test-Server in the above example.

Configuring a Data Source on macOS

1. Confirm that MariaDB Connector/ODBC has been registered withiODBC by confirming that the following options are set in the iODBCconfiguration file at /Library/ODBC/odbcinst.ini:

   [ODBC]
   Trace     = no
   TraceFile = /tmp/iodbc_trace.log
   
   [ODBC Drivers]
   MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Unicode Driver = Installed
   
   [MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Unicode Driver]
   Driver      = /Library/MariaDB/MariaDB-Connector-ODBC/libmaodbc.dylib
   Description = MariaDB Connector/ODBC(Unicode) 3.1 64bit
   Threading   = 0

2. Determine the connection parameters for your database.

3. Add a data source for your database to iODBC by adding the following options to the iODBC configuration file at /Library/ODBC/odbc.ini:

   [ODBC Data Sources]
   My-Test-Server = MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Unicode Driver
   
   [My-Test-Server]
   Driver   = /Library/MariaDB/MariaDB-Connector-ODBC/libmaodbc.dylib
   SERVER   = 192.0.2.1
   DATABASE = test
   USER     = db_user
   PASSWORD = db_user_password

   • Substitute the values of the SERVER, SOCKET, DATABASE, PORT, USER, and PASSWORD parameters with the relevant values for your environment.

4. Test the data source using the iodbctestcommand:

   iodbctest "DSN=My-Test-Server"

5. To select your new data source in your application, select the data source with the name that you configured, which is My-Test-Server in the above example.

Configuring a Data Source on Windows

MariaDB Connector/ODBC requires at least Windows 8.

Windows 10 was used to prepare these instructions. When using other versions of Windows, these instructions may require adjustment.

1. In the start menu, search for "ODBC Data Sources".

2. In the search results, open the application called "ODBC Data Sources (32-bit)" or "ODBC Data Sources (64-bit)", depending on whether you need a data source for a 32-bit or 64-bit application.

3. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator, click the "Add" button on the right side.

4. In the "Create New Data Source" window:

   • Click on "MariaDB ODBC 3.1 Driver" in the list.

   • Click the "Finish" button.

5. In the "Create a new Data Source to MariaDB" window:

   • In the "Name" text box, enter a name for the data source.

   • In the "Description" test box, enter a description for the data source.

   • Click the "Next" button.

6. In the next window, provide the connection credentials:

   • In the "Server Name" field, provide the IP address or domain name for the Server.

   • In the "User name" field, provide the username for the database user account.

   • In the "Password" field, provide the password for that user.

   • In the "Database" field, provide the default database to use.

   • Then, click the "Next" button.

wodbc2

1. Continue configuring the data source using the wizard:

   • The wizard provides a series of windows for configuring various aspects of the connection. Enable the settings you want to use.

   • Click the "Next" button to move on to the next window in the wizard.

   • In the "TLS Settings" window, make sure that "Verify Certificate" is checked. You can also add your certificate information here.

wodbc1

1. Click the "Finish" on the last window to exit the wizard and save your data source.

   • To test your connection, double-click the data source you have created to open the configuration window again. Click "Next" to reach the window titled "How do you want to connect to MariaDB" and click the button labeled "Test DSN". If you see the message below, you have successfully connected.

1. To select your new data source in your application, select the data source with the name that you configured for the "Name" field.

Failover

MariaDB Connector/ODBC supports failover in case one or more hosts are not available.

The failover feature requires using MariaDB Connector/ODBC 3.1.16 or greater with MariaDB Connector/C 3.3 or greater.

MariaDB Connector/ODBC 3.1.16 and greater is statically linked for Windows and macOS with MariaDB Connector/C 3.3.1. MariaDB Connector/ODBC 3.1.16 and greater is dynamically linked for Linux with MariaDB Connector/C.

The failover feature is enabled by providing a comma separated list of hosts as a server name.

The failover host string is the SERVER string. If the SERVER string does not include a port, the default port will be used.

The following syntax is required:

• IPv6 addresses must be enclosed within square brackets "[]"

• hostname and port must be separated by a colon ":"

• hostname:port pairs must be be separated by a comma ","

• If only one hostname:port is specified, the host string must end with a comma

• If no port is specified, the default port will be used

An example of a failover host string:

[::1]:3306,192.168.0.1:3307,test.example.com

Connection Parameters

Connection Parameter	Description	Default Value
DRIVER	• On Linux, the name of the driver, which is configured in the unixODBC driver template file. On macOS, the path to the driver's shared library, which is installed at /Library/MariaDB/MariaDB-Connector-ODBC/libmaodbc.dylib by default.
SERVER	Host name, IPv4 address, or IPv6 address of the database server.	localhost
SOCKET	The path to the socket file. On Linux, MariaDB Mariadb Server uses different default socket files on different Linux distributions. On Debian / Ubuntu, the default socket file is /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock or /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock. On CentOS / RHEL / Rocky Linux, the default socket file is /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock.	/tmp/mysql.sock
DATABASE	Database name to select upon successful connection. The database must already exist, and the user account must have privileges to select it.
PORT	TCP port of the database server.	3306
USER	The username to use for authentication.
PASSWORD	User password.
FORWARDONLY	When enabled, cursors are created as SQL_CURSOR_FORWARD_ONLY, so they can only move forward. Starting in Connector/ODBC 3.2, cursors are SQL_CURSOR_FORWARD_ONLY by default. In previous releases, cursors were created as SQL_CURSOR_STATIC by default.
NO_CACHE	When enabled, result set streaming is enabled, which enables the application to fetch result sets from the server row-by-row instead of caching the entire result set on the client side. Since the application is not caching the entire result set, the application is less likely to run out of memory when working with large result sets.
STREAMRS	Alias for the NO_CACHE connection parameter.
OPTIONS	See OPTIONS Bitmask
PREPONCLIENT	When enabled, the SQLPrepare ODBC API function uses the text protocol and client-side prepared statements (CSPS).
ATTR	Sets connection attributes that can be queried via the Performance Schema session_connect_attrs Table when the Performance Schema is enabled. Specify attributes in the format ATTR={=[,<attrname2=attrvalue2,...]}

What	Where to find it
DRIVER	• On Linux, the name of the driver, which is configured in the unixODBC driver template file. On macOS, the path to the driver's shared library, which is installed at /Library/MariaDB/MariaDB-Connector-ODBC/libmaodbc.dylib by default.
SERVER	Fully Qualified Domain Name in the https://www.notion.so../../../connection-parameters-portal/
PORT	Read-Write Port or Read-Only Port in the https://www.notion.so../../../connection-parameters-portal/
USER	Default username in the Service Credentials view, or the username you created
PASSWORD	Default password in the Service Credentials view, the password you set on the default user, or the password for the user you created
SSLVERIFY	Set to 1 to connect with SSL
FORCETLS	Set to 1 to enable TLS
FORWARDONLY	When enabled, cursors are created as SQL_CURSOR_FORWARD_ONLY, so they can only move forward. Starting in Connector/ODBC 3.2, cursors are SQL_CURSOR_FORWARD_ONLY by default. In previous releases, cursors were created as SQL_CURSOR_STATIC by default.
NO_CACHE	When enabled, result set streaming is enabled, which enables the application to fetch result sets from the server row-by-row instead of caching the entire result set on the client side. Since the application is not caching the entire result set, the application is less likely to run out of memory when working with large result sets.
STREAMRS	Alias for the NO_CACHE connection parameter.
OPTIONS	See OPTIONS Bitmask
PREPONCLIENT	When enabled, the SQLPrepare ODBC API function uses the text protocol and client-side prepared statements (CSPS).
ATTR	Sets connection attributes that can be queried via the Performance Schema session_connect_attrs Table when the Performance Schema is enabled. Specify attributes in the format ATTR={=[,<attrname2=attrvalue2,...]}

OPTIONS Bitmask

The OPTIONS bitmask contains the following bits:

Bit Number	Bit Value	Description
0	1	Unused
1	2	Tells connector to return the number of matched rows instead of number of changed rows
4	16	Same as NO_PROMPT connection parameter
5	32	Forces all cursors to be dynamic
6	64	Forbids the DATABASE_NAME.TABLE_NAME.COLUMN_NAME syntax
11	2048	Enables compression in the protocol
13	8192	Same as the NAMEDPIPE connection parameter
16	65536	Same as the USE_MYCNF connection parameter
20	1048576	Same as the NO_CACHE connection parameter
21	2097152	Same as the FORWARDONLY connection parameter
22	4194304	Same as the AUTO_RECONNECT connection parameter
26	67108864	Enables multi-statement queries