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Juan Soto's avatar
Juan Soto
MVP
Apr 08, 2018

**BREAKING NEWS** NEW SQL SERVER NATIVE CLIENT 18 released

As promised, the new SQL Server Native Client 18 is now available to download. Either Ben Clothier or I will be testing Azure authentication and other aspects of ADODB and be providing feedback soon! In the meantime, check out the announcement and other documents below :

Announcement: bit.ly/SNC18

OLEDB Driver Info: bit.ly/OLEDB18

ADODB Info with Native Client 18: bit.ly/ADODB18

Download Native Client 18 Here: bit.ly/SNC18Down

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  • DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI's avatar
    DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI
    Iron Contributor
    Apr 09, 2018

    I'm glad to see a major update to the data access driver for SQL Server and Azure SQL for Microsoft Access (as well as .NET and elsewhere).

     

    This provides much-needed support for TLS 1.2 with https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/oledb-driver-for-sql-server (MSOLEDBSQL) – the key component provided with SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) v18 update and new suggested default driver – while maintaining backwards compatibility with SQL Server Native Client 11 (SQLNCLI11).

    For easier reference, here is the direct (and clickable) link for downloading this new SQL Server driver:

     

    • https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56730


    As well for Juan's other links:

     

    • https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlnativeclient/2018/03/30/released-microsoft-ole-db-driver-for-sql-server/
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/oledb-driver-for-sql-server-programming
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/applications/using-ado-with-oledb-driver-for-sql-server
    • DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI's avatar
      DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI
      Iron Contributor
      Apr 09, 2018

      With this update, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/oledb-driver-for-sql-server is now the new suggested driver for connecting to SQL Server and Azure SQL databases from Access, ADO and beyond.

       

      Specifically that means using Provider=MSOLEDBSQL in connection strings, vs. older

      SQLOLEDB (plus DataTypeCompatibility=80 if want to return old ADO data types) or SQL Server Native Client (SQLNCLI) – as compared further in updated https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/oledb-driver-for-sql-server docs.

       

      So not only was OLE DB undeprecated in 2018, it's now the suggested driver for connecting to SQL Server and Azure SQL. Whereas up to this point, ODBC was suggested for use in the Access https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-or-link-to-data-in-an-sql-server-database-a5a3b4eb-57b9-45a0-b732-77bc6089b84e documentation ("ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server" in Create New Data Source driver list).

      • DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI's avatar
        DanMoorehead_PowerWeb5AI
        Iron Contributor
        Apr 09, 2018

        Use of the OLE DB driver enables support for new SQL Server 2005+ features like multiple active result sets (MARS), query notifications, user-defined types (UDTs), and the new xml data type, as https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/applications/using-ado-with-oledb-driver-for-sql-server, as may be helpful for ADO.NET and VBA automation.

         

        Besides TLS 1.2, this new OLE DB 18 SQL Server driver provides availability/replication enhancements with multi-subnet failover support.

        If interested, you can find details on other SQL Server driver enhancements (in 11, 13, 13.1 and 17) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odbc/windows/microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server-on-windows and available drivers with each SNAC version (11-13.1) https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlreleaseservices/snac-lifecycle-explained/.

         

        Thanks for letting us know about this, Juan!

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