Linux DSN Configuration
This section describes how to set up ODBC connectivity and configure DSNs on several Linux distributions: Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, and Red Hat Linux platforms, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, and Fedora.
Minimum Linux Versions
Here are the minimum supported versions for Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems:
| OS | Min. Version |
| Ubuntu | 11.04 |
| Debian | 7 |
| RHEL | 6.9 |
| CentOS | 6.9 |
| Fedora | 13 |
| SUSE | 12.1 |
Installing the Driver Dependencies
Run the following commands as root or with sudo to install the necessary dependencies:
- Debian/Ubuntu:
apt-get install libc6 libstdc++6 zlib1g libgcc1
- RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:
yum install glibc libstdc++ zlib libgcc
Here are the corresponding libraries required by the driver:
| Debian/Ubuntu Package | RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Package | File |
| libc6 | glibc | linux-vdso.1 |
| libc6 | glibc | libm.so.6 |
| libc6 | glibc | librt.so.1 |
| libc6 | glibc | libdl.so.2 |
| libc6 | glibc | libpthread.so.0 |
| libc6 | glibc | libc.so.6 |
| libc6 | glibc | ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 |
| libstdc++6 | libstdc++ | libstdc++.so.6 |
| zlib1g | zlib | libz.so.1 |
| libgcc1 | libgcc | libgcc_s.so.1 |
Installing the Driver
You can use standard package management systems to install the driver.
On Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, run the following command with root or sudo:
dpkg -i /path/to/driver/setup/AzureADODBCDriverforUnix.deb
On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo:
rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/AzureADODBCDriverforUnix.rpm
Licensing the Driver
Run the following commands to license the driver. To activate a trial, omit the <key> input.
cd /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-azuread/bin/
sudo ./install-license.sh <key>
Connecting through the Driver Manager
The driver manager loads the driver and passes function calls from the application to the driver. You need to register the driver with the driver manager and you define DSNs in the driver manager's configuration files.
The driver installation registers the driver with the unixODBC driver manager and creates a system DSN. The unixODBC driver manager can be used from Python and from many other applications. Your application may embed another driver manager.
Creating the DSN
See Using unixODBC to install unixODBC and configure DSNs. See Using the DataDirect Driver Manager to create a DSN to connect to OBIEE, Informatica, and SAS.
Authenticating to Azure Active Directory
Azure AD
Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.
Desktop Applications
CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop.Before you connect, set the following variables:
- InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop; that is, in situations where the user is using a local server not connected to the internet.
You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Azure Active Directory console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.
- Custom Azure AD applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.
When you connect, the driver opens the Azure Active Directory's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.
When the access token expires, the driver refreshes it automatically.
Headless Machines
If you need to log in to a resource that resides on a headless machine, you must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser. You can do this in either of the following ways:- Obtain the OAuthVerifier value as described in Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code, below.
- Install the driver on another machine and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow.
After you execute either of these options, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.
Obtaining and Exchanging a Verifier Code
To obtain a verifier code, you must authenticate at the OAuth authorization URL from a machine with an internet browser, and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.
- Choose one of these options:
- If you are using the Embedded OAuth Application, click Azure Active Directory OAuth endpoint to open the endpoint in your browser.
- If you are using a custom OAuth application, set the following properties to create the Authorization URL:
- InitiateOAuth: OFF.
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your application.
- Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
- Save the value of the verifier code. Later you will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.
To obtain the OAuth authentication values, set these properties:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthVerifier: The verifier code.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The location of the file where the driver saves the OAuth token values that persist across connections.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret in the custom OAuth application settings.
After the OAuth settings file is generated, re-set the following properties to connect:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The location containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this location grants read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your application.
Transferring OAuth Settings
Prior to connecting on a headless machine, you must create and install a connection with the driver on a device that supports an internet browser. Set the connection properties as described in "Desktop Applications" above.
After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the location specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.
Once you have successfully tested the connection, copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine.
On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to connect to data:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The location of your OAuth settings file. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your application.
Azure Service Principal
Azure Service Principal is role-based application-based authentication. This means that authentication is done per application, rather than per user. All tasks taken on by the application are executed without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.
For information about how to set up Azure Service Principal authentication, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.
Managed Service Identity (MSI)
If you are running Azure Active Directory on an Azure VM and want to leverage MSI to connect, set AuthScheme to AzureMSI.
User-Managed Identities
To obtain a token for a managed identity, use the OAuthClientId property to specify the managed identity's "client_id".When your VM has multiple user-assigned managed identities, you must also specify OAuthClientId.
Refreshing OAuth Values
The driver can refresh the temporary OAuth access tokens obtained during the browser-based OAuth authentication exchange. By default, the driver saves the encrypted tokens in the odbc.ini file corresponding to the DSN. Access to this odbc.ini file can be restricted in the case of System DSNs.
To enable the automatic token exchange, you can give the driver write access to the system odbc.ini. Or, you can set the OAuthSettingsLocation connection property to an alternate file path, to which the driver would have read and write access.
OAuthSettingsLocation=/tmp/oauthsettings.txt
Installing Dependencies for OAuth Authentication
The OAuth authentication standard requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Active Directory, using a web-browser. If the first OAuth interaction is to be done on the same machine the driver is installed on, for example, a desktop application, the driver needs access to the xdg-open program, which opens the default browser.
To satisfy this dependency, install the corresponding package with your package manager:
| Debian/Ubuntu Package | RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Package | File |
| xdg-utils | xdg-utils | xdg-open |
Set the Driver Encoding
The ODBC drivers need to specify which encoding to use with the ODBC Driver Manager. By default, the CData ODBC Drivers for Unix are configured to use UTF-16 which is compatible with unixODBC, but other Driver Managers may require alternative encoding.
Alternatively, if you are using the ODBC driver from an application that uses the ANSI ODBC API it may be necessary to set the ANSI code page. For example, to import Japanese characters in an ANSI application, you can specify the code page in the config file '/opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-azuread/lib/cdata.odbc.azuread.ini':
[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932