Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 8-11.
Connecting to Windows Azure HDInsight Emulator
Configuring a DSN-less Connection
Using a DSN requires you to preregister the data source using the Windows ODBC Data Source Administrator. You'll
then be able to reference this DSN entry by name from any client application connection. A DSN essentially creates
an alias for your data source—you can change where the DSN is pointing and your applications will continue to work.
However, the downside to this approach is that you'll need to make sure the DSN exists on all machines that will be
running your applications. The alternate way of establishing a connection without a DSN is to use a connection string
in your application. The advantage of using a connection string is that you don't have to pre-create the DSN on the
systems that will be running your application.
The connection string parameters can be a little tricky, but this is a preferred approach because it removes the
external (DSN) dependency. Also note that the same connection string works for both 32-bit and 64-bit execution
modes. So you can avoid creating multiple DSNs—you just need to ensure that both versions of the ODBC driver are
installed. Table
8-1
summarizes the connection string attribute you need to set to create a DSN-less connection to
Hive using the Microsoft Hive ODBC driver.
