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

Pre-Installation Guide

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

Installation Guide

  1. The Lite Edition (Single-Tier) ODBC Driver for PostgreSQL Data Sources is distributed in a single .msi file.
    • Download the driver by clicking on the link and then double-click on the downloaded .msi file to start the installation process.
    • 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\, and 32-Bit licenses are installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenLink Software\UDA\bin\.
    • Proceed to configuring an ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) that binds to your target PostgreSQL database.

Configuration Guide

  1. Open the "ODBC Data Sources" application.
  2. Configure 64-bit drivers using the 64-bit application. Configure 32-bit drivers using the 32-bit application.
  3. Select the System DSN tab, then click Add.
  4. Select the OpenLink "Lite" Driver for PostgreSQL Data Sources from the list of available drivers. Choose the Unicode version of the driver if you are working with multi-byte character sets to avoid unnecessary translations that can impact ODBC performance.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. The first dialog prompts for a Data Source Name and an optional description. Click Next.
  7. The second dialog prompts for information that identifies the PostgreSQL database server and the listening port. It also provides a checkbox to verify basic connection parameters before setting advanced and optional settings.
    1. Host name: The hostname or IP address of the server where PostgreSQL runs.
    2. Port: The TCP port on which PostgreSQL listens.
    3. Database: The PostgreSQL database.
    4. No Transactions: Enable this option to automatically commit all transactions, which helps prevent memory errors for large transactions. For example, when exporting 10,000 records from Microsoft Access.
    5. Connect now to verify that all settings are correct: The connection will be attempted once you click Continue.
    6. Login ID: A PostgreSQL username.
    7. Password: A valid PostgreSQL database password.
  8. Click Next.
  9. The third dialog allows you to set PostgreSQL-specific parameters.
    • Enable HSODBC (Oracle Heterogeneous Services) fix: Check this box if you plan to query PostgreSQL through Oracle HSODBC.
  10. Click Next.
  11. The fourth dialog combines database-specific and optional parameters.
    • Database: The Microsoft SQL Server database.
    • Character set: The client application's character set (8-bit only; the Unicode driver always returns UCS-2 on Windows).
    • Language: The language in which you want error messages to be returned. It must be supported by the target server.
    • Packet Size: Specifies the number of bytes per network packet transferred from the database server to the client. Adjusting this value can improve performance. Use 0 for the default packet size specified in the Microsoft SQL Server configuration, -1 to compute the maximum allowable packet size, or an integer from 1 to 10 as a multiple of 512 bytes (e.g., Packet Size of 6 sets the packet size to 6 * 512 = 3072 bytes).
    • Prepare Method: This option is specific to the TDS-based driver for Sybase & Microsoft SQL Server SQL Servers. It determines whether stored procedures are created on the server for SQLPrepare calls.
    • No Quoted Identifiers: Indicates that the underlying driver does not support quoted identifiers, which is required for Jet engine-based products like MS Access.
    • Use ANSI nulls, padding, and warnings: This option affects TDS agent & Lite Driver connections to Microsoft SQL Server databases. It does not affect Sybase connectivity.
    • Map Serializable to Snapshot isolation level: Enable Snapshot transaction isolation level in the driver.
  12. Click Next to continue.
  13. The fifth dialog allows you to set optional ODBC connection parameters.
    • Read-only connection: Specifies whether the connection is read-only. Uncheck this option to perform INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operations.
    • Defer fetching of long data: Defers fetching of LONG (BINARY, BLOB, etc.) fields in wildcard queries, improving performance when the query does 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: Specifies the number of records to be delivered from the driver to the client application in a single batch (values 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 to be automatically executed 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 this option and provide the full path to a file to log diagnostic information.
  14. Click Next to continue.
  15. The sixth 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.
    • Disable Autocommit: Changes the commit behavior of the OpenLink driver.
    • Disable rowset size limit: Disables a limitation enforced by the cursor library to prevent excessive memory usage with large result sets.
    • Multiple Active Statements Emulation: Enables the use of Multiple Active Statements in an ODBC application even if the underlying database does not support it.
    • SQL_DBMS Name: Manually overrides the SQLGetInfo(SQL_DBMS_NAME) response returned by the driver.
  16. Click Next to continue.