Overview of ODBC Configuration

The ODBC initialization file is used by the ODBC Driver Manager and ODBC drivers. Although ODBC initialization information exists on both Windows and UNIX systems, on Windows systems the information resides in the Registry, and all changes are made using the Windows ODBC Administrator (launched by clicking on the ODBC Data Sources icon in the Windows Control Panel) as described in the Connect ODBC Reference.

On UNIX systems, the ODBC initialization file is a text file that must be modified manually to reflect the data sources available in your environment. During the IDL installation process, a template initialization file named odbc.ini is installed in the IDL_DIR/resource/dm/os/ directory, where IDL_DIR is the root directory of the IDL distribution and os is the directory named after your particular operating system. This file contains information about the ODBC drivers installed along with the DataMiner.

You must modify the ODBC initialization file reflect your system's data source configuration, and you must make the file available to all IDL DataMiner users on the system. Do the following:

  1. Create a backup copy of the template IDL_DIR/resource/dm/os/odbc.ini file named odbc.ini.orig.
  2. Modify the template odbc.ini file to reflect your system's data source configuration. The format of the initialization file is described in ODBC Initialization File Format. See the Connect ODBC Reference for information on the specific ODBC drivers used at your site.
  3. Make the initialization file available to IDL DataMiner users. You can do this in either of the following ways:
    • Create an environment variable named ODBCINI that contains the path to the initialization file in each IDL DataMiner user's environment. This method is useful if every IDL DataMiner user uses the same datasource configuration.
    • Copy the modified odbc.ini file to each IDL DataMiner user's home directory, using .odbc.ini as the filename (note the initial dot). This method is useful if different IDL DataMiner users use different datasource configurations.

Note
When the IDL DataMiner starts, it looks first for the ODBCINI environment variable. If the variable exists, the DataMiner will use the file it refers to and ignore any .odbc.ini file in the user's $HOME directory.

About the Default ODBC Configuration

The default IDL_DIR/resource/dm/os/odbc.ini file contains information about the ODBC drivers installed on your system by IDL, but nothing about your specific data sources. At the very least, you will need to add the data source names to the ODBC initialization file; depending on your specific installation, you may also need to add details such as the database host name, database instance name. You might also wish to make database access more convenient by specifying login or password information.

Changing the ODBC Configuration

If you change the values in the ODBC initialization file while the IDL DataMiner is in use, you must destroy any existing database object and reconnect before the changes will be apparent. See Destroying Database Objects for details on destroying a database object.