Defining an ODBC Data Source - Teradata SQL Assistant

Teradata® SQL Assistant for Windows User Guide

Product
Teradata SQL Assistant
Release Number
16.20
Published
October 2018
Language
English (United States)
Last Update
2020-01-03
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B035-2430
Product Category
Teradata Tools and Utilities

An ODBC-based application like Teradata SQL Assistant accesses the data in a database through an ODBC data source.

After installing Teradata SQL Assistant on a workstation, start Teradata SQL Assistant and define a data source for each database.

The Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator maintains ODBC data sources and drivers and can be used to add, modify, or remove ODBC drivers and configure data sources. An About Box for each installed ODBC driver provides author, version number, module size, and release date.

Use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator program installed on the workstation to define a data source in one of two ways.

  1. Do one of the following:
    • From the Windows desktop, select Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC).
    • From within SQL Assistant, select ODBC from drop-down list to the left of the toolbar, then select Tools > Define Data Source.
  2. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog, decide what type of data source to create.
    Data Source Description Description
    User DSN An ODBC user data source stores information about how to connect to the indicated data provider.
    System DSN

    System DSN An ODBC system data source stores information about how to connect to the indicated data provider. A system data source is visible to all users on this machine, including NT services.

    File DSN An ODBC file data source connects to a data provider. File DSNs can be shared by users who have the same drivers installed.
    File DSN is not recommended.
  3. After selecting the DSN type, click Add.
    For example, click the System DSN tab. Click Add, then click OK.
  4. In the Create New Data Source dialog, select the appropriate driver then click Finish.

    For example, locate the Teradata driver under the Name column, click to select the driver, then click Finish.

    The ODBC Driver Setup for Teradata Database dialog appears for the selected database. This dialog requests information that defines the location of the database and the connection parameters to be used when establishing a connection. The parameters vary from one vendor database to another. The following table describes the basic parameters used to connect to a database.

    Select This Field To...
    Name

    Enter a name that identifies this data source.

    For example, in some cases there is more than one Teradata server to connect to or a user might have more than one logon depending on the function the user performs.

    Description Enter a description. This is solely a comment field to describe the data source name used.
    Name(s) or IP address(es)

    Enter the names or IP addresses of each LAN-connected node in the system, one per line. Entering only the first node name or IP address causes the client to communicate only with that node or IP address and can decrease system performance significantly.

    Define any names entered here in either Domain Name Services (DNS) or the local hosts file. The hosts file is located in the system32\drivers\etc subdirectory of the directory in which Windows is installed.

    Enter the names or IP addresses of the Teradata system.

    Never enter both a name and an IP address.
    Do not resolve alias name to IP address

    When this option is selected, setup routine does not attempt to resolve alias names entered into Name(s) and IP address(es)at setup time.

    Instead, it is resolved at connect time. When cleared, the setup routine automatically appends COPn (where n = 1, 2, 3, ..., 128) for each alias name entered.

    This causes other IP addresses associated with this server to be located, until a break in the sequence is detected.

    Use Integrated Security Select this option if logging on using integrated security measures.
    Mechanism Leave this field blank to use the default mechanism.
    Parameter The authentication parameter is a password required for the selected mechanism.
    Username Enter a user name.
    Password

    Enter a password to be used for the connection if using Teradata SQL Assistant in an unattended (batch) mode.

    Entering a password here is not secure.

    Default Database (optional)

    Enter the default database name.

    If the Default Database is not entered, Username is used as the default. All tables, views, and macros are assumed to be in this default database unless explicitly prefixed by a database name in the query.

    Account String (optional) Enter one of the accounts that the DBA assigned to the Username when it was created.
    Session Character Set Use the drop-down menu to select the character set. The default is ASCII.

    Teradata SQL Assistant is ready to use.

    For more information about using Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator, refer to the ODBC Data Source Administrator Help system.

    The SQL Assistant option Allow use of ODBC SQL Extensions in queries no longer exists. Clear the ODBC DSN option Disable Parsing to allow the use of ODBC SQL extensions in queries.