RE: Connecting to AS400 from MS SQL Enterprise Manager

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Pete Helgren
> Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 11:34 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: Re: Connecting to AS400 from MS SQL Enterprise Manager
> 
> 
> <nit-picking>
> So where is the ODBC Client ON the iSeries?  That is my 
> issue.  DRDA is 
> great (had everyone adopted it) but most OS's support ODBC and have 
> applications that support ODBC (emphasis on *Open* DB Connectivity). 
> </nit-picking>

Ask Microsoft.

Since SQL server uses a closed interface, they have to write the ODBC client.

Granted there are a couple of third party ODBC drivers out there, as a result 
of reverse engineering the protocol SQL server uses.  But I don't think you'd 
consider them enterprise ready.

IBM could do the same, but without official support from Microsoft, IBM's 
efforts would be just a prone to problems as anybody else's unsupported efforts 
when Microsoft makes changes.


> 
> It would be sweet we if we could define an ODBC connection on the 
> iSeries and RPG (and other apps) could talk through that.  
> For example, 
> I can open up MS Query in windows (part of MS Office, 
> actually) and use 
> whatever database I want (if it supports ODBC).  If I open 
> Query/400 I 
> can only query databases on the iSeries.  Again, I know that 
> there are 
> tools that can be purchased to do this kind of thing.
> 
> Again, no big deal.  I am very used to this and have written 
> all sorts 
> of programs that run on the iSeries and talk to other DB's (primarily 
> through JDBC, as Rob pointed out).
> 
> So your statement is that the iSeries doesn't support Open Database 
> Connectivity ODBC (as a client) is because the iSeries IS open? Hmmm, 
> not sure I agree.  It probably doesn't support ODBC because 
> writing an 
> ODBC client for the iSeries isn't a priority for IBM (there may be 
> technical issues as well).  Business Partners can do that 
> kind of thing 
> (as they should).

As above, IBM can't write ODBC clients for the iSeries because the other DB 
vendors don't publish the specs needed to interface to the DB server.

The only thing open about ODBC is the fact that any program can make use of the 
DB vendor provided drivers.

It's not the same has having a open spec on the server.

Incidentally, the current invocation of ODBC is a corruption (by Microsoft of 
course) of the original intent.  As originally planned, the server side 
protocol was supposed to be open.

> 
> I am just "wishing" here, not being critical (at all) of the 
> iSeries and 
> it's capabilities.

I'm wishing too.

But not for ODBC.  That's not going to happen for reasons cited multiple times 
before.

Instead, I'm wishing IBM would put together a DRDA-JDBC bridge.  Since the 
iSeries series runs Java quite well, and since all the vendors provide type 4 
JDBC drivers.  It should theoretically be possible for the iSeries to connect 
to a remote DB using a loaded JDBC driver just like it can connect to a remote 
DRDA database.

In addition, I want to the iSeries be able to handle a query that use local and 
remote resources at the same time.  DB2 on the other platforms can do this but 
we can't.


Charles