ODBC Driver Manager architecture

NoteThis feature applies to UNIX and Linux platforms only.

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

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

Now, with ECDA 15.0, Sybase replaces the DataDirect ODBC Driver Manager with the open source unixODBC Driver Manager. Sybase does continue to support the Data Direct Driver suite. If you want to use the DataDirect ODBC Driver suite, you must use the DataDirect Driver Manager. Using the new Create Server wizard, you can 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.

Configuration property

A new 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.

Environment variables

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

ODBC Driver Manager environment variables

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:

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