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Setting up ODBC connections from the Windows Start Menu

 

If you don't use Microsoft Access to get to the data on the SQL servers, you may still need to set up ODB connections. You can do that from the Start button on the desk top. These instructions will take you through the first few steps of the process where they differ from doing this with Access. At the end of this page is a link that takes you a series of instructions that will allow you to finish this process.

1. Click on "Start", then "Control Panel", then "Administrative Tools", then "Data Sources (ODBC)" as shown below.

 

2. You will see a window called "ODBC Data Source Administrator", as shown below. Click on the "Add" button at the top right.

3. The next window will prompt you to create a new data source. Scroll to the bottom of the list, and select "SQL Server", and click the "Finish" button.

4. On this screen, you will give the new data source a name, a description, and tell Access what server it resides upon.

While the name should be something meaningful to you, AIS suggests you use a combination of the desired database and the server it resides upon. In this example below, the name is "SISFIN-MSUDATA. This makes it quickly obvious that this data source connects to the SISFin database on the MSUDATA server.

The Description field can be any freeform text to help you understand and recognize this on the next time you connect to it.

The server name will be the fully qualified name of the server. Typically this will be "msudata.ais.msu.edu". Once you complete these fields, click "next".

 

5. Next up is a window titles "Create a New Data Source to SQL Server". Make sure that the radio button "With SQL Server authentification using the network login ID" is checked. Enter your ID and password, and click the "Next".utton.

6. On the next window, you need to click the "Change the default database to:" box, and then select the database you want to access from the pull-down list. Leave the checkboxes "Use ANSI quoted identifiers" and "Use ANSI nulls, paddings and warnings" checked, as shown. Click "Next" button to continue.

7. All the check boxes on this window should be unchecked, except for the "Perform translation for character data" box. Click "Finish" when ready.

 

8. The window titled "ODBC Microsoft SQL Server Setup" will list the parameters you have selected in this process. Click on the "Test Data Source…" button at the bottom. It should come back with a message saying "TESTS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY". This indicates that all is well. Click OK to get back to the Server Setup window, and then click "OK" again.

 

9. At this point, you will see the ODBC Data Source Administrator window again (see step 2, above) but with the new connection defined. Click "OK" to close this window. Open the program that you will use to access the SQL server, and connect to the server using the ODBC connection you just created.

 

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