Windows DSN Configuration

Using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator

You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to edit the DSN configuration. Note that the DSN is created during the installation process.

Complete the following steps to edit the DSN configuration:

Select Start > Search, and enter ODBC Data Sources in the Search box.
Choose the version of the ODBC Administrator that corresponds to the bitness of your application (32-bit or 64-bit).
Click the System DSN tab.
Select the system data source and click Configure.
Edit the information on the Connection tab and click OK.

Note: For .NET Framework 4.0, the driver distributes Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable. For .NET Framework 3.5, the driver distributes Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable.

Ensuring Registry Access

The driver stores connection information in the Windows registry. To ensure that the driver can write to the registry, perform either of the following actions:

Run the calling application as an administrator.
Connect via a User DSN instead of a System DSN.

Connecting to Lakebase

To connect to Lakebase, set these properties:

DatabricksInstance: The Databricks instance or server hostname, provided in the format instance-abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-abcdef123456.database.cloud.databricks.com .
Server: The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Lakebase database.
Port (optional): The port of the server hosting the Lakebase database, set to 5432 by default.
Database (optional): The database to connect to after authenticating to the Lakebase Server, set to the authenticating user's default database by default.

Authentication Schemes for Lakebase

Lakebase supports two types of OAuth-based authentication schemes for calling workspace-level APIs: OAuthClient and OAuthPKCE.

OAuthClient

OAuthClient uses the OAuth client credentials grant type. This authentication scheme requires you to perform additional configuration on your service principal in order to connect, as described in Setting Up OAuthClient Authentication.

Authentication is handled via the OAuth Client Credentials flow. This flow does not involve direct user authentication; rather, it uses credentials that apply only to the application itself. The CData ODBC Driver for Lakebase uses the service principal itself to authenticate with the associated permissions being defined in the service principal.

Since no embedded OAuth credentials are provided, specifying the OAuthClient authentication scheme requires you to perform extra configuration of your service principal, as described in Setting Up OAuthClient Authentication.

Set these configuration parameters:

AuthScheme: OAuthClient.
OAuthClientId: The client ID (also known as the consumer key) that was assigned when you configured the service principal. This ID is required to identify the application to the OAuth authorization server during authentication.
OAuthClientSecret: The client secret (also known as the application secret or consumer secret) that was assigned when you configured the service principal. This confidential value is used to authenticate the application to the OAuth authorization server.

OAuthPKCE

OAuthPKCE uses the OAuth code grant type with PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange) to guard against cross-site request forgery and authorization code injection attacks.

In this authentication scheme, authentication is handled via the use of a temporary code that the client exchanges for an access token. The code itself is obtained from the authorization server, where the user can see what information the client is requesting, and can either approve or deny the request.

Set these configuration parameters:

AuthScheme: OAuthPKCE.
User: The authenticating user's user ID.

Authenticating to Lakebase

Once you have set the configuration parameters required to connect to Lakebase, and the configuration parameters required for your chosen form of authentication, you can authenticate to Lakebase as described in the following sections.

Desktop Applications

The first time you authenticate to Lakebase from a desktop application you must set InitiateOAuth twice in the course of the OAuth flow:

At initial login, you must set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH. This launches the login page and saves tokens.
Once you have obtained valid access and refresh tokens, you can re-set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH. This reuses stored tokens without prompting the user again, which can be useful on unattended machines.

After authentication, tokens are saved to OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across sessions and are used to automatically refresh the access token when it expires. This means that upon subsequent connections you will not need to log in again.

Headless Machines

Headless environments like CI/CD pipelines, background services, or server-based integrations do not have an interactive browser. To authenticate using OAuthClient, you must complete the OAuth flow on a separate device with a browser and transfer the authentication result to the headless system.

Note: The following procedures are meant for use with the OAuthPKCE authscheme. Since the OAuthClient authscheme does not require browser interaction, it can make use of InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH on a headless machine as well.

Setup options:

Obtain and exchange a verifier code: Use another device to sign in and retrieve a verifier code, which the headless system uses to request tokens.
Transfer an OAuth settings file: Authenticate on another device, then copy the stored token file to the headless environment.

Using a Verifier Code

On a device with a browser:
- Set InitiateOAuth to OFF.
- Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure to generate a sign-in URL.
- Open the returned URL in a browser. Sign in and grant grant permissions to the driver.
  You are redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
- After signing in, save the value of the code parameter from the redirect URL. You will use this later to set the OAuthVerifier connection property.
At the headless machine:
- Set the following properties:
  - OAuthClientId: The client Id that was generated when you configured the service principal.
  - OAuthClientSecret: The client secret that was generated when you configured the service principal.
- After tokens are saved, reuse them by setting:
  - OAuthSettingsLocation: Make sure this location grants read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Transferring OAuth Settings

On a device with a browser, connect using the instructions in the Desktop Applications section. After connecting, tokens are saved to the file path in OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.
Encrypted values are stored in the system registry.
On the headless machine:
1. Copy the OAuth settings file to the machine.
2. Set the following properties:
  - OAuthSettingsLocation: Make sure this location grants read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

After setup, the driver uses the stored tokens to refresh the access token automatically. No browser or manual login is required.