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First Look: ODBC and InterSystems Databases

If you want to use ODBC with InterSystems IRIS® data platform, this document provides an introduction to how to set it up.

To browse all of the First Looks, including those that can be performed on a free evaluation instance of InterSystems IRISOpens in a new tab, see InterSystems First LooksOpens in a new tab.

ODBC: How to Use It with InterSystems IRIS

InterSystems provides a fully compliant (ODBC 3.5) ODBC driver, which you can use to access an InterSystems IRIS database via ODBC. The driver is installed by default when you install InterSystems IRIS.

In order to start using ODBC with InterSystems IRIS, you simply need to configure the driver on your InterSystems IRIS instance. This First Look document provides an overview of that process.

If you are not already familiar with ODBC, see the links in the Learn More section at the end of this document for further information.

Before You Begin

To use this procedure, you need a Windows systems with an installed instance of InterSystems IRIS.

Setting Up ODBC On Windows

This section describes how to create a DSN for an InterSystems IRIS database on Windows.

The instructions in this section assume that you have the InterSystems ODBC driver installed. By default, the standard InterSystems IRIS installation process installs the driver, so unless you performed a custom installation, the driver should be present on your instance.

To enable your applications to access an InterSystems IRIS database via ODBC, you need to create a DSN that defines the location of the database for the ODBC client driver. On Windows, you can do this from the Windows Control Panel, as follows:

  1. Open the Windows Administrative Tools control panel.

  2. Select Data Sources (ODBC).

  3. On the User DSN tab, select Add.

  4. Select InterSystems ODBC and click Finish.

    The DSN is created, and the InterSystems ODBC Data Source Setup dialog box is shown.

    InterSystems ODBC Data Source Setup Dialog Box

  5. Enter the necessary configuration details:

    • Enter a name and description for the DSN.

    • Enter the IP address, port number, and namespace corresponding to the InterSystems IRIS database that this DSN represents.

    • Select an authentication method, and enter or select other security information as appropriate for the InterSystems IRIS instance.

  6. Select the Test Connection button to test that your setup is correct.

If the connection test was successful, congratulations! You have finished setting up your InterSystems IRIS database to use ODBC. Now you can modify your ODBC-aware applications to use the DSN that you just created.

Learn More About ODBC

If you prefer to use a file DSN, see the “Using File DSNs and DSN-less Connections” chapter in the Using the InterSystems ODBC Driver guide for instructions.

InterSystems IRIS also supports ODBC on UNIX®; for details, see the “Using an InterSystems Database as an ODBC Data Source on UNIX®” chapter in the Using the InterSystems ODBC Driver guide.

To use TLS to secure an ODBC connection on Windows, see Connecting from a Windows Client Using a Settings File.

To learn more about ODBC and InterSystems IRIS, see:

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