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) and Fedora.

Minimum Linux Versions

Here are the minimum supported versions for Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems:

OS	Min. Version
Ubuntu	18.04
Debian	10
RHEL	8
Fedora	28
SUSE	15

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/Fedora:
  

  yum install glibc libstdc++ zlib libgcc

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/LDAPODBCDriverforUnix.deb 

On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo:

rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/LDAPODBCDriverforUnix.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-ldap/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.

Connecting to LDAP

The CData driver for the LDAP supports connecting to LDAP server objects. To connect, set the required properties.

Required Properties

• Server: The domain name or IP of the LDAP server.
• Port: The port setting defaults to port=389. Specifying the port to a different setting is optional.
• BaseDN: This property is used for limiting results to specific subtrees. Specifying a narrow BaseDN (Base Distinguished Name) may greatly increase performance. For example, a value of cn=users,dc=domain only returns results contained within cn=users and its children.

Optional Properties

Optional properties can be used to further refine control of the returned results.

• FollowReferrals: This property follows referrals when TRUE. The returned response then becomes read only. To modify data returned by a referral server, open a new connection to the server by specifying server and port.
• Scope: This property enables more control over the search depth of the LDAP tree, starting with BaseDN. Limiting the Scope can greatly improve search performance. Set the Scope to one of the following values:
  • WholeSubtree: Limit the scope of the search to the BaseDN and all of its descendants.
  • SingleLevel: Limit the scope of the search to the BaseDN and its direct descendants.
  • BaseObject: Limit the scope of the search to the base object only.
• LDAPVersion: The LDAP version used to connect to and communicate with the server. Set this property to 2.

Authenticating to LDAP

To authenticate requests, set the User and Password properties to valid LDAP credentials. For example: set User to Domain\\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain.

The AuthMechanism properties for the driver are as follows:

• SIMPLE: The default plaintext value of the authentication mechanism to login to the server.
• NEGOTIATE: Negotiates whether to use NTLN or Kerberos when authenticating to the server.

SSL Configuration

By default, the driver uses plaintext when communicating with the server set to port=389. The driver automatically switches to use SSL when talking to the LDAP on port=636. You can force the connection to use the SSL connection property when set to SSL=TRUE.

Customizing Tables

The driver surfaces the columns most often needed from LDAP entities. However, if you need to work with other data, the tables are easy to modify. Tables are defined in schema files, which have a simple format.

See Working with LDAP Tables for a guide to extending the default schemas or writing your own. To use custom schemas, set the Location property to the folder containing the schema files. For more on tables and views, see Data Model.

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-ldap/lib/cdata.odbc.ldap.ini':

[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932