How to install freetds in Linux? - sql-server

Question

I am trying to connect to MSSQL server from Ubuntu. I have installed freetds like suggested here.
However, when I try to configure /etc/odbc.ini and enter a driver path I have no driver at location /usr/local/freetds/lib/libtdsodbc.so.
Can someone help me to install freetds and to configure odbc to use it?
*edit1: I have found libtdsodbc.so in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc. Should I use that driver/path?

Answer 1

I've created a Vagrant box which has a full installation example here: https://github.com/FlipperPA/django-python3-vagrant/
...but here are the basic steps.
# Install pre-requesite packages
sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev freetds-dev freetds-bin tdsodbc
Point odbcinst.ini to the driver in /etc/odbcinst.ini:
[FreeTDS]
Description = v0.91 with protocol v7.2
Driver = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
Create your DSNs in odbc.ini:
[dbserverdsn]
Driver = FreeTDS
Server = dbserver.domain.com
Port = 1433
TDS_Version = 7.2
...and your DSNs in freetds.conf:
[global]
# TDS protocol version, use:
# 7.3 for SQL Server 2008 or greater (tested through 2014)
# 7.2 for SQL Server 2005
# 7.1 for SQL Server 2000
# 7.0 for SQL Server 7
tds version = 7.2
port = 1433
# Whether to write a TDSDUMP file for diagnostic purposes
# (setting this to /tmp is insecure on a multi-user system)
; dump file = /tmp/freetds.log
; debug flags = 0xffff
# Command and connection timeouts
; timeout = 10
; connect timeout = 10
# If you get out-of-memory errors, it may mean that your client
# is trying to allocate a huge buffer for a TEXT field.
# Try setting 'text size' to a more reasonable limit
text size = 64512
# A typical Microsoft server
[dbserverdsn]
host = dbserver.domain.com
port = 1433
tds version = 7.2
After completing this, you can test your connection by attempting to connect with tsql (to test the FreeTDS layer) and isql (for the unixODBC through FreeTDS stack).

Answer 2

The version available via apt-get is a really old version. To get a newer version:
sudo apt-get install wget
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev
# find latest version of FreeTDS ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/
wget ftp://ftp.freetds.org/pub/freetds/stable/freetds-1.2.tar.gz
tar -xzf freetds-1.2.tar.gz
cd freetds-1.2
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-tdsver=7.3
sudo make
sudo make install

Answer 3

in freedts.conf
[Server80]
host = example.com
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0
client charset = UTF-8
in odbc.ini
[MSSQL8]
Driver = FreeTDS
Description = Sybase JDBC Server
Trace = No
Servername = Server80
Database = DBNAME
UID = sa
ClientCharset = UTF-8
in odbcinst.ini
[FreeTDS]
Description=v0.63 with protocol v8.0
Driver=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/odbc/libtdsodbc.so
UsageCount=2