RE: DRDA and Azure SQL Server

Direct connect would require IBM i access ODBC drivers most likely and using the SQL Server linked server.

This has always been dicey and probably more-so over Internet because you would have to maintain an ongoing ODBC connection to IBMi.

I would say REST services is probably a better way of doing things for realtime.

Do you have a VPN connect between Azure and your local network ?

Regards,
Richard Schoen
Web: http://www.richardschoen.net
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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message: 3
date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 18:37:19 +0000
from: Dean Eshleman <Dean.Eshleman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: DRDA and Azure SQL Server

Hi,

We are on 7.3 of IBM i. We are working on a project where an application in Azure will need to update some tables on the IBM i. Our initial thought was to create REST API's on the IBM I and have the Azure application call them. We have experience with REST API's, so we understand how that would work. The consultants we are working with (Windows background) ran across DRDA and wondered if they could use that to connect directly to the database on the IBM I and skip the REST API. The thinking being, that would be less work. I did some reading about DRDA, but it wasn't very clear to me how it works. Does anyone have experience using DRDA in this manner? I guess I would also be interested in reasons why this may not be a good idea. TIA

Dean Eshleman
Software Development Architect
Everence

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