How to upgrade Information Server with new DataDirect ODBC drivers on Unix or Linux platforms.

Resolving The Problem

Use the following steps to upgrade the ODBC drivers shipped with Information Server:

1. Visit web page http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral
2. Find the correct ODBC drivers for your environment. Select Information Management for product group, and then select InfoSphere Information Server product, and then finally your DataStage release and platform. For release, chose a base product level (such as 8.1) rather than a fix pack level since the ODBC drivers are not tied to specific fix pack levels.
3. Browse the resulting set of fixes and find package such as: is810_ddodbc60_64bit_aix
   which contains the updated 6.0 release of ODBC drivers for use with Information Server 8.1 on AIX.
4. Download the tar/zip file to your DataStage Engine tier machine.
5. Backup the contents of the .odbc.ini file in the DSEngine directory (or whichever file the ODBCINI environment variable points to for your DataStage environment if using a non-default location).
6. If DataStage jobs using ODBC stages are run during the following steps they will either fail, or mark drivers as "in-use" which can prevent the update from completing so you may need to stop the DataStage Engine at this point.
7. At OS command prompt, change directory to your InformationServer/Server directory, then rename the branded_odbc subdirectory, i.e.:
   mv branded_odbc branded_odbc530
8. Untar the DataDirect (Progress) drivers (such as ddodbc60) that you downloaded. These should unpack into a new branded_odbc subdirectory. Ensure the new directory is created at correct location under the InformationServer/Server directory. Since this new directory is in the same location as the old one, you will not need make changes to the system library path.
9. Once the files are unpacked, ensure that they have the correct permissions. DataStage users should have read and execute permissions for all files in the branded_odbc directory tree. If the files do not install with public read and execute permission, then you will need to ensure the owner id, group id, and group permissions are correct. In a typical DataStage environment, these files should have owner name of dsadm and group name of dstage. All DataStage users should be a member of dstage group. Ensure permission on all files in branded_odbc directory and its subdirectories is then set to 755 (public read/execute permission), or 750 (read and execute permission granted to members of dstage group but not public).
10. The DataDirect driver filenames can change with new releases (version number in filename increments). For Example, the DataDirect ODBC 5.3 driver for DB2 UDB had filename VMdb223.so, while the 6.0 DB2 driver will have filename VMdb224.so and 6.1 driver has filename VMdb225.so.
    
    As a result, the Driver= line of each data source entry in the .odbc.ini file in your DSEngine directory will need to be updated. For every data source name (DSN) entry in the .odbc.ini file where the Driver= line references a library with filename *23.* (except for VMtxt23.*), Change the last digit of filename so that the driver= line now ends with *24.*. Some packages may contain VMtxt23.so instead of VMtxt24.so, so in that situation you would not change the corresponding Driver= line if you are using the text ODBC driver.
    
    The copy of .odbc.ini file you need to update should be located in your DSEngine directory unless you have defined ODBCINI environment variable to point to a different location.
11. Start DataStage engine and confirm your ODBC drivers work. If you have problems and need to switch back, you can simply rename the current branded_odbc directory to new backup name, rename the original backup back to branded_odbc, and restore the backup of your .odbc.ini file in the DSEngine directory.