SQL linked server Python pyodbc insert error - sql-server

Question

I'm having an interesting error when I'm trying to trigger an SP on a local SQL Server with two linked servers.
The purpose of the exorcise above is to move data from one linked server to another.
When I'm triggering the stored procedure from SSMS it works like a charm, but when I trigger it from Python I'm getting these sexy error messages:
(
'42000', '[42000] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]The OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI11" for linked server "XXXX" reported an error. One or more arguments were reported invalid by the provider. (7399) (SQLExecDirectW)
; [42000] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]The operation could not be performed because OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI11" for linked server "XXXX" was unable to begin a distributed transaction. (7391)
; [42000] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI11" for linked server "XXXX" returned message "The parameter is incorrect.". (7412)'
)
In short my python scripts (that fails with the errors above) looks as follows:
MyConn = pyodbc.connect(DRIVER="ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server",SERVER=os.environ["sqlServer"],UID=os.environ["sqlUID"],DATABASE=os.environ["sqlDB"],PWD=os.environ["sqlPWD"])
Cursor = MyConn.cursor()
sqlQuery = "exec dbo.usp_XXXXETL #LookBackDays = 0"
Cursor.execute(sqlConta)
I've also tested the connection above; I'm able to run select statements against the linked servers from python.
What's even more annoying is that when I write it in R it works:
conn = odbcDriverConnect("Driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};Server=*SameServer*;Database=*SameDB*;Uid=*Uid*;Pwd=*Pwd*;Connection Timeout=360;")
sqlExecute(
conn,
query="dbo.usp_XXXXETL #LookBackDays = 0",
fetch=FALSE,
errors=TRUE,
query_timeout=300)
Obviously it works so it's no big problem, it's just that I hate R-scrips and am sort of puzzled by the error.
In advance many thanks for your time and brain power!

Answer 1

You've started a transaction, and the linked server is configured to enlist the remote server in the transaction, which required MSDTC. So
1) Don't start a transaction. You've probably got autocommit off, which causes the session to use implicit transactions.
2) Disable the remote proc transaction promotion option for the linked server with sp_serveroption
3) Troubleshoot MSDTC to enable the distributed transaction.