Connect MSSQL using ODBC in Linux (CentOS)
For connecting MSSQL using ODBC in Linux you can use unixODBC and freeTDS. unixODBC is a tool for using ODBC in Non Windows platform. MSSQL uses Tabular Data Stream (TDS) as a communication protocol which is same like in Sybase. freeTDS is an implementation of TDS protocol.
Installing unixODBC
1. Install gcc
#yum install gcc
2. Download unixODBC and untar it
#mkdir /root/downloads
#cd /root/downloads
#wget ftp://ftp.unixodbc.org/pub/unixODBC/unixODBC-2.3.0.tar.gz
#tar –xzf unixODBC-2.3.0.tar.gz
#cd unixODBC-2.3.0
3. Install unixODBC
#./configure
#make
#make install
Installing freeTDS
1. Set environmental variable at /etc/profile. Add following lines at end
#nano /etc/profile
# TDS
SYBASE=/usr/local
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:$SYBASE/lib
export SYBASE LD_LIBRARY_PATH
/etc/profile
2. Download freeTDS and untar it
#cd /root/downloads
#wget ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/freetds/stable/freetds-stable.tgz
#tar –xzf freetds-0.82.tar.gz
#cd freetds-0.82
3. Install freeTDS
# ./configure --with-tdsver=8.0 --with-unixodbc=/usr/local
#make
#make install
4. Now all your library will be inside /usr/local/lib and configuration files inside /usr/local/etc
5. Make template to register ODBC driver with unixODBC
#nano /usr/local/etc/tds.driver.template
[FreeTDS]
Description = v0.63 with protocol v8.0
Driver = /usr/local/lib/libtdsodbc.so
tds.driver.template
6. Now install the driver entry using above template
# odbcinst -i -d -f /usr/local/etc/tds.driver.template
7. Make template to create ODBC data source name
#nano /usr/local/etc/tds.datasource.template
[MSSQLTest]
Driver = FreeTDS
Description = Sample Database
Trace = No
Server = 192.168.0.1
Port = 1433
Database = TestDB
tds.datasource.template
8. Now create odbc data source using above template
# odbcinst -i -s -f /usr/local/etc/tds.datasource.template
9. Finish. You can test it by giving command
# isql -v MSSQLTest username password
