Creating a Data Source with MariaDB Connector/ODBC

Creating a Data Source with MariaDB Connector/ODBC on Windows

To create a data source on Windows, you would use the ODBC Data Source Administrator.

Creating a Data Source with MariaDB Connector/ODBC on Linux

To create a data source on Linux, there are two steps:

• First, configure UnixODBC to recognize MariaDB Connector/ODBC as a Driver.
• Second, configure UnixODBC with a Data Source Name (DSN) for your MariaDB Server.

Configuring MariaDB Connector/ODBC as a UnixODBC Driver on Linux

You might also want to configure UnixODBC to recognize MariaDB Connector/ODBC as a Driver. To configure the Driver, you can use the odbcinst tool, which can add a configuration entry for MariaDB Connector/ODBC to the system's global /etc/odbcinst.ini file.

For example, create a template file similar to the following, with a name like MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.ini:

[MariaDB ODBC 3.0 Driver]
Description = MariaDB Connector/ODBC v.3.0
Driver = /usr/lib64/libmaodbc.so

And then install it to the system's global /etc/odbcinst.ini file with the following command:

sudo odbcinst -i -d -f MariaDB_odbc_driver_template.ini

At this point, you should be able to connect to MariaDB by using the Driver with the SQLDriverConnect function. To connect with SQLDriverConnect, you would need to specify Driver={MariaDB ODBC 3.0 Driver} in your connection string along with your other connection parameters.

See Parameters for connection string options.

Configuring a DSN with UnixODBC on Linux

You might also want to configure UnixODBC with a Data Source Name (DSN) for your MariaDB Server. A DSN allows you to centrally configure all of your server's connection parameters, so that you can easily configure how to connect to your server in your environment. To configure the DSN, you can use the odbcinst tool, which can add a configuration entry for the given data source to the system's global /etc/odbc.ini file or your user's local ~/.odbc.ini file.

For example, create a template file similar to the following, with a name like MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini:

[MariaDB-server]
Description=MariaDB server
Driver=MariaDB ODBC 3.0 Driver
SERVER=<your server>
USER=<your user>
PASSWORD=<your password>
DATABASE=<your database>
PORT=<your port>

And then you can install it to the system's global /etc/odbc.ini file with the following command:

sudo odbcinst -i -s -l -f MariaDB_odbc_data_source_template.ini

Or you can install it to your user's local ~/.odbc.ini file with the following command:

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

At this point, you should be able to connect to MariaDB by using the DSN with either SQLConnect or the SQLDriverConnect functions. To connect with SQLConnect, you would have to provide MariaDB-server as the ServerName parameter. To connect with SQLDriverConnect, you would have to provide DSN={MariaDB-server} in the connection string along with your other connection parameters.

See Parameters for connection string options.

Verifying a DSN Configuration with UnixODBC on Linux

You can verify that a DSN is properly configured with UnixODBC on Linux by using the isql utility.

For example, if the DSN is called MariaDB-server, then we can verify that it works properly by executing the following:

$ isql MariaDB-server
+---------------------------------------+
| Connected!                            |
|                                       |
| sql-statement                         |
| help [tablename]                      |
| quit                                  |
|                                       |
+---------------------------------------+
SQL> SELECT @@global.hostname;
+-------------------------------------------+
| @@global.hostname                         |
+-------------------------------------------+
| ip-172-30-0-249.us-west-2.compute.internal|
+-------------------------------------------+
SQLRowCount returns 1
1 rows fetched
SQL> quit

Changing UnixODBC's Configuration File Paths

You can also change the paths that unixODBC uses for its configuration files by changing some environment variables. For example:

• ODBCSYSINI - Overloads path to unixODBC configuration files. By default equals to /etc.
• ODBCINSTINI - Overloads the name of the drivers configuration file. It is relative to ODBCSYSINI and by default set to odbcinst.ini.
• ODBCINI - Overloads the path to user configuration file. By default it is set to ~/.odbc.ini.