ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Build 24.0.9060

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) and Fedora.

Minimum Linux Versions

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

OSMin. Version
Ubuntu18.04
Debian10
RHEL8
Fedora28
SUSE15

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/DynamicsCRMODBCDriverforUnix.deb

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

rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/DynamicsCRMODBCDriverforUnix.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-dynamicscrm/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 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

To connect, set the root URL of your organization.

Authenticating to Microsoft Dynamics CRM On-Premise

To authenticate to Microsoft Dynamics CRM On-Premise, set CRMVersion = CRM2011+.

NTLM

To use SPNEGO over NTLM authentication on a CRM On-Premise deployment, set these parameters:

  • AuthScheme: NTLM.
  • User: The user's login Id.
  • Password: The user's login password.

Example NTLM connection string: 

AuthScheme=NTLM;Url='https://myOrg.crm.dynamics.com/';User=username;Password=password;CRM Version='CRM2011+'

Kerberos

To use SPNEGO over Kerberos authentication on a CRM On-Premise deployment, set these parameters:

  • AuthScheme: Kerberos.
  • User: The user's login Id.
  • Password: The user's login password.

Example Kerberos connection string: 

AuthScheme=Kerberos;Url='https://myOrg.crm.dynamics.com/';User=username;Password=password;CRM Version='CRM2011+'

Internet-Facing Deployments (IFDs)

To authenticate via an IFD, set InternetFacingDeployment to true.

Example IFD connection string: 

AuthScheme=NTLM;Url='https://myOrg.com/';User=username;Password=password;InternetFacingDeployment=True;CRM Version='CRM2011+'

Authenticating to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

You can authenticate to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online via either Azure AD (for user-based authentication) or Azure Service Principal (for Service Principal-based authentication).

To authenticate to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, set CRMVersion = CRMOnline.

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.

Authentication to Azure AD over a Web application always requires the creation of a custom OAuth application. For details, see Creating an Azure AD Application.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies connection to Azure AD from a Desktop application.

You can also authenticate from a desktop application using a custom OAuth application. (For further information, see Creating an Azure AD Application.) To authenticate via Azure AD, set these parameters:

  • AuthScheme: AzureAD.

  • Custom 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 you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the driver opens Microsoft Dynamics CRM's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

The driver completes the OAuth process, obtaining an access token from Microsoft Dynamics CRM and using it to request data. The OAuth values are saved in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the driver refreshes it automatically.

Headless Machines

To configure the driver with a user account 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 below in Option 1: Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code.
  • Install the driver on another machine as described below in Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings. After you authenticate via the usual browser-based flow, transfer the OAuth authentication values.

Option 1: Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code

  1. Find the authorization endpoint.

    Custom applications only: Set these properties to create the Authorization URL:

    • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your application.

    Custom and embedded applications: Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure.

    1. Open the URL returned by the stored procedure in a browser.
    2. Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
    3. Save the value of the verifier code. You will use this later to set the OAuthVerifier connection property.

  2. Exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens.

    At the headless machine, set these properties:

    • AuthScheme: AzureAD.
    • OAuthVerifier: The verifier code.
    • OAuthSettingsLocation: The location of the file that holds the OAuth token values that persist across connections.

    • Custom applications only:

      • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
      • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in the custom OAuth application settings.

  3. After the OAuth settings file is generated, reset the following properties to connect:

    • 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.

Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings

Before you can connect via 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 above, in Desktop Applications.

After you complete 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.

At the headless machine, set these properties:

  • AuthScheme: AzureAD.
  • 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

Service principals are security objects within an Azure AD application that define what that application can do within a particular Azure AD tenant. Service Principals are created in the Azure service portal. As part of the creation process we also specify whether the service principal will access Azure AD resources via a client secret or a certificate.

Instead of being tied to a particular user, service principal permissions are based on the roles assigned to them. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

When authenticating using an Azure Service Principal, you must register an application with an Azure AD tenant, as described in Creating an Azure AD Application with Service Principal.

You are ready to connect after setting the properties described in this subsection. These vary, depending on whether you will authenticate via a client secret or a certificate.

Authentication with Client Secret

  • AuthScheme: AzureServicePrincipal.
  • AzureTenant: The Azure AD tenant to which you wish to connect.
  • OAuthGrantType: CLIENT.
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.

Authentication with Certificate

  • AuthScheme: AzureServicePrincipalCert.
  • AzureTenant: The Azure AD tenant to which you wish to connect.
  • OAuthGrantType: CLIENT.
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
  • OAuthJWTCert: The JWT Certificate store.
  • OAuthJWTCertType: The JWT Certificate store type.

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 Microsoft Dynamics CRM, 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 PackageRHEL/Fedora PackageFile
xdg-utilsxdg-utilsxdg-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-dynamicscrm/lib/cdata.odbc.dynamicscrm.ini': 

[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932

Copyright (c) 2024 CData Software, Inc. - All rights reserved.
Build 24.0.9060