Recommended ODBC Drivers for 8.0.3 MobiLink

The MobiLink server connects to several types of consolidated database, using the ODBC 3.5 standard. For most supported consolidated database types, you should use the iAnywhere Solutions ODBC driver for that type of database. The iAnywhere Solutions ODBC drivers and the MobiLink server are included in the SQL Anywhere Studio product. When iAnywhere Solutions does not provide an ODBC driver, then you must use one provided by another vendor. ODBC drivers from other vendors may not support some optional ODBC functionality that the MobiLink server requires.

Some ODBC drivers have different behaviors that cannot be detected by querying the driver. For these we test the driver to determine viable workarounds. Once we have identified a set of workarounds that are required for a driver, we update the MobiLink server so that it recognizes the version of the driver. It then will automatically apply the required set of workarounds for that driver.

For some ODBC drivers, we are unable to develop viable workarounds for all issues. In these cases, you still may be able to use the driver if your synchronizations do not require the missing driver functionality.

For ease of testing, and to allow MobiLink to apply workarounds to drivers that it does not recognize, the MobiLink workarounds can be set by the undocumented –hw command-line switch. This switch and its associated workarounds are not documented because indiscriminate use of workarounds could cause data corruption or software errors.

Note that after workaround sets are identified, we can make future versions of MobiLink apply the associated hidden workaround switches automatically. Thus if you chose to use hidden workarounds directly, you may not need them with newer versions of the MobiLink server. Continued use of hidden switches with a newer MobiLink may even cause problems or reduced performance.

Driver testing

We use two types of testing of ODBC drivers with MobiLink.

The first, referred to as MLR, is a comprehensive suite of regression tests that exercise synchronization functionality. If some specific MLR tests fail, the driver may still be suitable as long as your synchronizations do not rely on the functionality that failed. For example, if the only MLR tests that fail are for synchronization of LONG BINARY data, then the driver may still be suitable for you if you are not using MobiLink to synchronize LONG BINARY data.

The second type of testing, referred to as MLB, is high-load testing involving many clients synchronizing simultaneously with a MobiLink server running on a multi-processor computer. We have found that some drivers from other vendors will fail with multiple simultaneous connections or under high load while running on multiple processors.

Recommended Drivers

As a result of our testing, we recommend the following ODBC drivers for use with version 8.0.3 of the MobiLink server.

If you are having problems with an older version of MobiLink, you should consider upgrading to a newer version. Older versions may no longer be actively supported. For more information, see SQL Anywhere Supported Platforms and Engineering Support Status.

The following sections list the recommended ODBC driver for different types of consolidated database. In some cases, alternative drivers are also listed. Click on one of the consolidated DBMS types below to see recommended driver information for using MobiLink with that type of DBMS:

Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA)

Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE)

Oracle 8, 8i, 9i, 10g

Microsoft SQL Server 2000

IBM DB2 UDB 7.2, 8.1

Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA)

Driver	Adaptive Server Anywhere 8.0
Version	8.0.3
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink.
Client s/w	None.
OS	Win32
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwc+o+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	All MLR and MLB tests pass.
Cons	None.
Notes	The MLR tests all pass with the ODBC driver included with ASA, and the MLB testing shows no problems with multiple clients simultaneously synchronizing through a MobiLink server running on a multi-processor computer.

Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE)

Driver	iAnywhere Solutions 8 - Sybase ASE ODBC driver DataDirect Sybase Wire Protocol ODBC Driver
Version	4.20.0063(B0061,U0057) (Win32) , 4.20.0059(B0058,U0055)( Solaris ), 4.20.0073(B0067,U0062)( Linux ), 4.20.0055(B0054, U0053)( AIX )
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink -- This driver must be purchased from DataDirect
Client s/w	None
OS	Win32 ,Solaris, Linux, AIX
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwf+i+j+t+v+w+A+
Other required workarounds	-hwC+
Pros	All MLR and MLB tests pass.
Cons	The MLB test of 1000 clients and 1000 rows with cursor-based uploads may fail. Always use statement-based uploads instead.
Notes	The file name of the driver is wqase19.dll on Win32. When setting up the DSN, on Win32, check the "Enable Describe Parameter" option and select the "2-Full" option for Prepare Method on the Performance tab. On Solaris, Linux and AIX, set the "OptimizePrepare=2" option and leave the other options with default values. Setting "OptimizePrepare=3" and "SelectMethod=1" can cause blocking in the ASE server.

Oracle 8, 8i, 9i, 10g

Please see the Notes section for the iAnywhere Solutions 8 ODBC driver for more about Oracle 10g.

We do not recommend any ODBC drivers from Oracle. All of the ones from Oracle that we have tested have had multi-threading issues. Use one of the following drivers instead.

Driver	iAnywhere Solutions 8 - Oracle Wire Protocol ODBC Driver DataDirect Oracle Wire Protocol ODBC Driver
Version	GA: 4.20.0061(B0059,U0056) (Win32) 4.20.0081(B0067,U0062)( Solaris, AIX ), 4.20.0080(B0067,U0062)( Linux ) EBF 5122: 4.20.0081(B0067,U0062)(Win32)
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink -- This driver must be purchased from DataDirect
Client s/w	None
OS	Win32 ,Solaris, Linux, AIX
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwf+i+k+w+A+F+C+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	All MLR tests pass; All MLB tests pass.
Cons	The BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE data types, new in Oracle 19g, are not supported.
Notes	The file name of the driver is wqora19.dll on Win32. This driver supports Oracle 8i (8.1.6, 8.1.7), Oracle 9i and Oracle 10g. Although this driver has been tested with Oracle 10g, this driver has not been tested with functionality that is new in Oracle 10g and may be limited in this respect. Known limitations include: BINARY_FLOAT and BINARY_DOUBLE are not supported. Grid is not supported. Connections to RACs( Real Application Clusters) are possible, but without failover. This driver doesn't need Oracle client software, is faster than the Oracle native ODBC driver and is easier to set up. When setting up the DSN, on Win32, don't set "Enable Static Cursors for Long Data" ; on Unix, don't set EnableStaticCursorsForLongData=1, since that will adversely affect MobiLink performance. "Application Using Threads" should always be enabled on Win32. The equivalent option "ApplicationUsingThreads=1" should be set on Unix. Enable "Procedure Returns Results" on Win32 or set "ProcedureRetResults=1" on Unix if you want stored procedures to return result sets. On Unix, EnableScrollableCursor=1 should be set, otherwise, it will fail to unlock the driver.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000

Important: With any version of SQL Server, you should specify "SET NOCOUNT ON" as the first statement in all stored procedures or SQL batches executed via ODBC. Without this option, a "number of rows affected" message is sent to MobiLink for each statement executed. If you are doing a relatively large number of inserts, updates, and select into statements, these messages can fill network buffers resulting in data being lost without any indication that it is being lost!

Driver	Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Driver
Version	2000.81.9030.04 (for SQL Server 2000, Win32) 2000.85.1022 (for SQL Server 2000, Win64)
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink.
Client s/w	None
OS	Win32, Win64
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwq+e+C+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	Passes all MLR and MLB tests.
Cons	None
Notes	Be sure to put "SET NOCOUNT ON" at the start of all stored procedures and batches that are executed via ODBC. For SQL Server 2000, the driver has problems with the ODBC convention for calling stored procedures: { call MyMSSProc(?, ?, ? ) } You should instead use the native calling convention: exec MyMSSProc ?, ?, ?

IBM DB2 UDB 8.1, 7.2

Important:

Mobilink only supports the DB2 on Windows, Linux and Unix. DB2 AS/400 and DB2 mainframe are not supported.
See The Importance of the Dynamic Sections Option of the iAnywhere Solutions DB2 ODBC Driver.
Any DB2 Java stored procedures used in MobiLink synchronization should always immediately set autocommit to OFF, for example by using getConnection.setAutoCommit(false).

Driver	iAnywhere Solutions 8 - DB2 Wire Protocol ODBC Driver DataDirect DB2 Wire Protocol ODBC Driver
Version	GA: 4.20.0065(B0059,U0056) (Win32) , 4.20.0108(B0080,U0069) ( AIX ) EBF 5122: 4.20.0085(B0067,U0062)(Win32)
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink with caveats -- This driver must be purchased from DataDirect
Client s/w	None
OS	Win32, AIX
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwf+n+u+A+D+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	All MLR tests pass, all MLB tests pass.
Cons	The BLOB data type is only supported when running against DB2 8.1 or above. This driver only supports up to 32K-length values of the CLOB data type when running against DB2 7.2 or previous server. When fetching BLOB data back in chunks, trailing byte of buffer was set to 0x00.
Notes	This driver supports DB2 UDB 7.2 and 8.1. The performance of this driver is better than IBM's own DB2 ODBC driver. If your consolidated database is DB2 7.2, and you want to synchronize BLOB, or CLOB columns bigger than 32k, this driver is not recommended. Before you use the DB2 data source for the first time, you must successfully bind a package for the data source. Consult the MobiLink documentation for details. For MLB testing, the database configuration parameter LOCKLIST needs to be changed to 500. The CHR() function of DB2 UDB 8.1 changes 0x00 to 0x20. The file name of the driver is wqdb219.dll on Win32.

Driver	IBM DB2 UDB 8.1 ODBC Driver
Version	8.01.02.169 (Win64)
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink with caveats.
Client s/w	DB2 UDB Client 8.01
OS	Win64
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwf+h+n+u+A+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	Passes all MLR tests. Passes all MLB tests.
Cons	With "Long object binary treatment" set to "AS LONGVAR data", all BLOB, CLOB, LONG VARCHAR, LONG VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA tests will fail
Notes	This driver is available for Win32 as well as Win64, but for Win32 we recommend using the iAnywhere driver instead. This driver doesn't support cursor update. Use statement-based uploads. For MLB testing, two database configuration parameters LOCKLIST and APPLHEAPSZ need to be changed. Set LOCKLIST to 500 and APPLHEAPSZ to 1024. The CHR() function of DB2 UDB 8.1 changes 0x00 to 0x20. The above results come from testing DB2 UDB 8.1 server. There are a lot of restrictions for using this driver with DB2 UDB 7.2 or earlier servers. Please refer to IBM documentation. We suggest you don't use this driver with DB2 UDB 7.2 or earlier servers.

Driver	IBM DB2 UDB ODBC driver
Version	7.01.00.65
Status	Recommended for use with MobiLink with caveats.
Client s/w	DB2 UDB Client 7.01.0000 with FixPak 3 and FixPak 7
OS	Win32
Workarounds applied by MobiLink	-hwf+h+n+u+A+
Other required workarounds	None
Pros	Except for two BLOB tests, passes all MLR tests using statement-based upload. Passes most MLR tests using cursor-based upload. Passes all MLB tests.
Cons	Cursor-based uploads of BLOB, CLOB, LONG VARCHAR and LONG VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA fail. The driver has a bug with two or more BLOB columns, SQLParamData shows "Memory allocation failed" when uploading into a table with more than one BLOB column.
Notes	Use statement-based uploads instead of cursor-based uploads. To install this driver, if your DB2 UDB client is 7.01.0000, you need to first install FixPak3 and then install FixPak 7; if your DB2 UDB client is 7.02.0000, just install FixPak 7 directly. For MLB testing, two database configuration parameters LOCKLIST and APPLHEAPSZ need to be changed. Set LOCKLIST to 500 and APPLHEAPSZ to 1024. This driver supports DB2 UDB 8.1 database. This driver is better than 7.01.00.00.