ODBC driver manager architecture

This feature applies only to UNIX and Linux platforms.

ECDA uses ODBC drivers to access multiple database targets, including Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2 UDB. An ODBC driver manager loads ODBC database drivers on behalf of the ECDA DirectConnect server.

Until ECDA 12.6.1, Sybase linked with and shipped the DataDirect ODBC Driver Manager on Linux and UNIX platforms.

As of ECDA 15.0, Sybase has replaced the DataDirect ODBC Driver Manager with the open source unixODBC Driver Manager. To use the DataDirect ODBC Driver suite, you must use the DataDirect Driver Manager. Use the Create Server wizard to select and use a DataDirect Driver Manager library when you create a new server.As a result of this more open architecture, Sybase will be able to formally certify other ODBC drivers as required. In the meantime, you may want to test and integrate with other ODBC drivers for additional database access to meet your business needs.

A service library configuration property called ODBCDriverManager specifies the load library for the desired ODBC Driver Manager. This configuration property can contain the library’s full path name as well as library version extensions.

ECDA 15.0 uses these library path environment variables to locate the libraries that the runtime loader uses to satisfy runtime dependencies:

To find and load drivers, the driver manager uses configuration files, which contain specific information about target databases and driver location.

The environment variable identifier for the unixODBC driver manager is ODBCSYSINI, which points to the directory that contains these files:

• odbc.ini contains the data source name (DSN) information, such as connection information, driver identifiers, and other driver-specific attributes.

• odbcinst.ini contains driver-specific information only.

For more information, see the Enterprise Connect Data Access Installation Guide for Linux and UNIX.