DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Connecting to databases with the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI

The IBM® Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI is not part of the IBM Data Server Client or the IBM Data Server Runtime Client. It must be installed and configured separately. The IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI does not create a local database directory. This means that when you use this driver, you must make connectivity information available to your applications in other ways.

About this task

There are several ways to specify connectivity information so that your CLI and ODBC database applications can use the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI to connect to a database. When CLI settings are specified in multiple places, they are used in the following order:

Connection strings parameters
db2cli.ini file
db2dsdriver.cfg file

Before you begin

To connect to databases with the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI, you need:

databases to which to connect; and
one or more copies of the driver installed.
- For more information, see Installing the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI software on Linux and UNIX operating systems.

Procedure

To configure connectivity for a database when using the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI, use one of the following methods:

Specify the database connectivity information in the connection string parameter to SQLDriverConnect.
- For more information, see SQLDriverConnect function (CLI) - Connect to a data source.
For CLI applications only: put the database connectivity information in the DB2® CLI configuration file.
There is no support for the Command Line Processor (CLP) with the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI. For this reason, you can not update CLI configuration using the CLP command "db2 update CLI cfg"; you must update the db2cli.ini initialization file manually.

If you have multiple copies of the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI installed, each copy of the driver will have its own db2cli.ini file. Ensure you make the additions to the db2cli.ini for the correct copy of the driver.

For more information about the location of the db2cli.ini file, see db2cli.ini initialization file.

Use the db2dsdriver.cfg configuration file to provide connection information and parameters. For example, you can specify the following information in the db2dsdriver.cfg configuration file, and pass the connection string in SQLDriverConnect() as DSN=myDSN;PWD=XXXXX:

<configuration>
  <dsncollection>
    <dsn alias="myDSN" name="sample" host="server.domain.com" port="446">
    </dsn>
  </dsncollection>
  <databases>
    <database name="sample" host="server.domain.com" port="446">
      <parameter name="CommProtocol" value="TCPIP"/>
      <parameter name="UID" value="username"/>
    </database>
  </databases>
</configuration>

For ODBC applications only: register the database as an ODBC data source with the ODBC driver manager. For more information, see Registering ODBC data sources for applications that use the IBM Data Server Driver for ODBC and CLI.
Use the FileDSN CLI/ODBC keyword to identify a file data source name (DSN) that contains the database connectivity information. For more information, see FileDSN CLI/ODBC configuration keyword.
A file DSN is a file that contains database connectivity information. You can create a file DSN by using the SaveFile CLI/ODBC keyword. On Windows operating systems, you can use the Microsoft ODBC driver manager to create a file DSN.
For local database servers only: use the PROTOCOL and the INSTANCE CLI/ODBC keywords to identify the local database.
1. Set the PROTOCOL CLI/ODBC keyword to the value Local.
2. Set the INSTANCE CLI/ODBC keyword to the instance name of the local database server on which the database is located.
For more information, see Protocol CLI/ODBC configuration keyword and Instance CLI/ODBC configuration keyword.

Example

Here is a list of CLI/ODBC keywords that work with file DSN or DSN-less connections:

For the following examples, consider a database with the following properties:

the database or subsystem is called db1 on the server;
the server is located at 11.22.33.44;
the access port is 56789; and
the transfer protocol is TCPIP.

To make a connection to the database in a CLI application, you could do one of the following:

Call SQLDriverConnect with a connection string that contains: Database=db1; Protocol=tcpip; Hostname=11.22.33.44; Servicename=56789;

Add the following to db2cli.ini:

[db1]
Database=db1
Protocol=tcpip
Hostname=11.22.33.44
Servicename=56789

To make a connection to the database in an ODBC application:

Register the database as an ODBC data source called odbc_db1 with the driver manager.
Call SQLConnect with a connection string that contains: Database=odbc_db1;