ODBC to ODBC Bridge Driver Installation Guide (Windows)

Complete installation and configuration guide for OpenLink Lite (Single-Tier) Edition ODBC to ODBC Bridge Driver

Overview

This installation guide walks you through installation of the OpenLink Lite (Single-Tier) Edition ODBC to ODBC Bridge Driver to a Personal or Application Server host functioning as a client to a database that's accessible via its native ODBC Driver.

Why Choose OpenLink ODBC Bridge Connectors?

Over the years, ODBC has become one of the native APIs offered by DBMS vendors for third-party application interaction. However, meeting this basic requirement alone doesn't address the critical data security, privacy, and administrative architecture challenges faced by application administrators and users—this is where ODBC to ODBC Bridge Connectors become essential.

OpenLink ODBC Bridge Connectors introduce powerful fine-grained, attribute-based access controls (ABAC) that act as ODBC session-level enforcers of data access policies, ensuring alignment with governance preferences. Additionally, they provide the deployment topology flexibility needed to manage large installations of ODBC-based client applications and services effectively.

Lite Architecture Diagram

1Download the Installer Archive

  1. Visit the OpenLink ODBC Lite Edition Driver Download Page to download the appropriate ODBC to ODBC Bridge Driver.
  2. Alternatively, curl can be used to download the installer archives and install.sh script directly:
curl -O https://download3.openlinksw.com/uda/components/8.0/x86_64-generic-win-64/wal8odbc.msi

2Pre-Installation Configuration

Important Requirements:
  • You must possess third-party or native ODBC drivers that connect to your target data source. A client portion of these drivers must be installed on the same machine as the Multi-Tier "Enterprise" Edition Request Broker and Bridge Agent(s) for ODBC Data Sources.
  • You must know whether the local ODBC components are 32-bit or 64-bit. The Multi-Tier server components must match the bit format of the local ODBC components, not the OS.
  • A system ODBC DSN must be created for the third-party or native ODBC driver.

3Installation

  1. Log onto the target machine for the installation
  2. Copy or downloaded the windows MSI installers to the target machine, which is the wal8odbc.msi MSI file.
  3. Run the MSI installer to install the Lite Single-Tier ODBC-ODBC Bridge.
  4. Take care to enter correct information when prompted pertaining to ports, passwords, etc and ensure that you note these down for future use.
  5. The installation should complete without error.

4Configuration

  1. The installer would have setup all the environment variables etc required to use the OpenLink drivers.
  2. Place the License file (odbc_lt.lic) either purchased or obtain during the evaluation download process in the {OPENLINK_INSTALL}/bin directory.

5Create Data Source Name (DSN)

Open ODBC Data Source Administrator

  1. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator program.
ODBC Data Source Administrator

Add New Data Source

  1. Click on the Add button and select the OpenLink Lite for ODBC (Unicode)(8.0) driver.
Select OpenLink Driver

Configure DSN Name

  1. Enter the {ODBC DSN Name}.
Enter DSN Name

Select Target Database

  1. Select the {Third Party ODBC DSN Name} from either the list of available User, System or File DSNs; Login ID {Username}, Password. Select the Connect now to verify that all settings are correct and click the Next button to verify connection to the target database.
Select Target Database

Additional Setup Options

  1. The next 3 setup dialog options can normally be left as the defaults.
Setup Options 1
Setup Options 2
Setup Options 3

Test Data Source

  1. Details of the ODBC DSN are provided for which the Test Data Source button can be selected to test the connection.
Test Data Source

Verify Connection

  1. The connection should complete successfully
Connection Success

6Test Connection

Launch C++ Demo Application

  1. Go to the OpenLink Software program menu item and select the C++ Demo sample application.
C++ Demo Menu

Open Connection

  1. Select the Environment → Open Connection menu item.
Open Connection Menu

Select DSN

  1. Select the ODBC DSN for connection.
Select DSN

Enter Credentials

  1. Enter the username and password for the target database.
Enter Credentials

Execute SQL Query

  1. Select the SQL → Execute SQL menu item, enter the SQL query to be executed and click the OK button to execute.
Execute SQL

View Results

  1. Query results are displayed.
Query Results

Additional Information