First published on MSDN on Jan 23, 2013
Today, we are happy to announce availability of new Microsoft ODBC Drivers for SQL Server on Windows and for SQL Server on Linux.
Introducing the new
Microsoft ODBC Drivers for SQL Server
As outlined in a
previouspost
, Microsoft is adopting ODBC as the de-facto standard for native access to SQL Server and Windows Azure SQL Database. We have provided longstanding support for ODBC on Windows and, in the SQL Server 2012 timeframe, released support for ODBC on Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, and SUSE Enterprise Linux). Microsoft is aligning and renaming the previous ODBC drivers as follows:
-
SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) along with its ODBC functionality is now called Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server on Windows
-
Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver 1.0 for Linux along with its functionality is now called Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server on Linux
This change will result in our ODBC drivers for Windows and Linux being better aligned going forward. We hope that this change makes it easier for you to find the right driver for your needs and makes it easier to stay informed of new releases. Today’s availability marks the first combined release for your use.
These new ODBC drivers also include additional functionality not available in the previous versions;
learn more
about the new drivers.
New key features for the Windows version
.
-
Driver-aware connection pooling: Driver-aware connection pooling allows driver writers to customize the connection pooling behavior in their ODBC driver.
-
Connection resiliency in the Windows ODBC Driver: To help improve resiliency for cloud scenarios, the ODBC driver on Windows can restore broken connections along with a session state to a Windows Azure SQL Database.
-
Asynchronous Execution (Polling Method): An application thread can call an ODBC function in asynchronous mode and the function can return before the
operation is complete, allowing the application thread to perform other tasks. Beginning in the Windows 8 SDK, you can determine that an asynchronous
operation is complete using the notification method. Learn more about
Asynchronous Execution (Polling Method)
.
Download the Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server on Windows
Download Command line Utilities for Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server
New key features for the Linux version
-
Connect Linux to Windows Azure SQL Database: You can now connect from both Linux on-premises applications and Windows Azure Linux-supported VMs to Windows Azure SQL Database.
-
High Availability Support: Support for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups to enable High Availability and Disaster Recovery for Linux-based applications.
-
SQL Trace Support: Expanded tracing now supports Linux ODBC to help you know what your Linux-based application is doing all from the same SQL Trace experience.
Download Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server on Red Hat Linux
Shekhar Joshi, Senior Program Manager, SQL Server Group, Microsoft
Shekhar.joshi@microsoft.com
