How To Install and Configure the Lite Edition ODBC Drivers for MySQL (Windows)

Pre-Installation Guide

  1. You need to know a variety of information pertaining to your target MySQL instance and database:
    • MySQL TCP port: The port number on which the MySQL instance is listening.
    • Hostname or IP address of the MySQL database server: The hostname or IP address of the server where the MySQL database server is running.
  2. You need to know whether the client application is 32-bit or 64-bit. The Single-Tier (Lite Edition) ODBC Driver for MySQL must match the bit format of the client application.

Installation Guide

  1. Download and double click on the downloaded Lite Edition (Single-Tier) ODBC Driver for MySQL Data Sources, which is distributed in a single .msi file.
  2. Your driver needs a license file to operate.
    • Click the Browse button to locate a commercial or evaluation license that you have previously downloaded onto your local hard drive. Alternatively, click the Try & Buy button to obtain a commercial or evaluation license.
    • NOTE - 64-Bit licenses are installed in C:\Program Files\OpenLink Software\UDA\bin\, while 32-Bit licenses are installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenLink Software\UDA\bin\.
  3. Proceed to configuring an ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) that binds to your target MySQL database.

Configuration Guide

  1. Open the "ODBC Data Sources" Application.
  2. 64-bit drivers should be configured with the 64-bit Application.
  3. 32-bit drivers should be configured with the 32-bit Application.
  4. Select the System DSN tab, then click Add.
  5. Select the OpenLink "Lite" Driver for MySQL Data Sources from the list of available drivers. Select the Unicode version of the driver if and only if you are working with multi-byte character sets, as unnecessary translations can significantly affect ODBC performance.
  6. Click Finish.
  7. The first dialog prompts for a Data Source Name and optional description.
  8. Click Next.
  9. The second dialog prompts for information that identifies the MySQL database server and listen port. It also provides a checkbox that allows you to check your basic connection parameters before setting advanced and optional settings:
    • Host - The hostname or IP address of the server on which MySQL runs
    • Port - The TCP port on which MySQL listens
    • Database - The MySQL database
    • Login ID - A MySQL username
    • Connect now to verify that all settings are correct - Will attempt to connect to the database, once you click Continue.
    • Password - A valid MySQL database password
  10. Click Next.
  11. The third dialog enables you to set MySQL specific parameters:
    • No transactions - Disable ODBC transaction management. All transactions will be automatically committed. This prevents palloc() failures with out-of-memory errors when doing really big transactions, such as exporting 10,000 records from Microsoft Access.
    • Catalogs return Owner - Check this box so that ODBC API catalog calls return values in catalog columns as the database owner or schema.
    • Use Cursor Fetch - This parameter, specific to MySQL 5, enables the use of internal cursors to fetch result sets.
    • Prepare Method - Enables you to specify the Prepare/Execute Method. More
    • Character set - Allows you to choose the client character set. (ANSI only)
  12. Click Next.
  13. The fourth dialog enables you to set optional ODBC connection parameters:
    • Read-only connection — Specifies whether the connection is "Read-only." Must be unchecked to INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE records, and to run some Stored Procedures including some built-in functions.
    • Defer fetching of long data — Defers fetching of LONG (BINARY, BLOB, etc.) fields in wildcard queries. This provides significant performance increases when fields in query do not include LONG data fields.
    • Disable interactive login — Suppresses the ODBC "Username" and "Password" login dialog boxes when interacting with your ODBC DSN from within an ODBC compliant application.
    • Row Buffer Size — This attribute specifies the number of records to be delivered from the driver to the client application in a single batch. Values can range from 1 to 999.
    • Max Rows Override — Allows you to set a limit for the maximum number of rows to be returned from a query. The default value of 0 means no limit.
    • Initial SQL — Lets you specify a file containing SQL statements that will be run automatically against the database upon connection.
    • Dynamic Cursor Sensitivity — Enables or disables the row version cache used with dynamic cursors.
    • Enable logging to the log file — Check the checkbox and use the associated textbox to provide the full path to a file in which to log diagnostic information.
  14. Click Next.
  15. The fifth dialog enables you to set additional parameters to enhance compatibility with applications:
    • Enable Microsoft Jet engine options — Facilitates translation of certain data types for the Microsoft Jet Engine. If you notice that money and other datatypes are mishandled with Microsoft or other applications, test with Jet fix enabled.
    • Disable Autocommit — Changes the commit behavior of the OpenLink driver. The default mode is AutoCommit (box unchecked).
    • Disable rowset size limit — Disables a limitation enforced by the cursor library. This limitation is enforced by default. It prevents the driver from claiming all available memory when a resultset is very large.
    • Multiple Active Statements Emulation — Enables use of Multiple Active statements in an ODBC application even if the underlying database does not allow this, by emulation within the driver.
    • SQL_DBMS Name — Manually overrides the SQLGetInfo(SQL_DBMS_NAME) response returned by the driver.
  16. Click Next.
  17. The final dialog enables you to test your Data Source. Click the Test Data Source button.
  18. Once a successful connection has been established, click Finish.