CData supports creating a linked server in SQL Server Management Studio with our ODBC drivers. This section describes the benefits of using a linked server, how to create a linked server, metadata discovery using a linked server, and executing queries from the linked server.

Linked Server Benefits

You can use a SQL Linked Server to connect to the CData SQL Gateway. SQL Server treats the CData SQL Gateway as a linked SQL Server instance, so you can write full SQL queries to query your SFTP data without losing performance as would happen connecting to an ODBC data source directly. The connection can be made locally or to the Gateway located on a separate machine.

Create a Linked Server

Linked server support is enabled through the ODBC remoting feature, which enables you to connect to the ODBC driver from remote machines. You connect to each ODBC data source as a virtual MySQL or SQL Server database, communicating through the MySQL or TDS (SQL Server) protocols. ODBC remoting is managed through the CData SQL Gateway application.

Note: ODBC remoting is available only in the Windows edition of this driver. For information on creating a linked server in SQL Server Management Studio, see Create a Linked Server.

Metadata Discovery

For information on discovering metadata using the linked server from any tool that can connect to SQL Server, see Metadata Discovery.

Executing Queries

For information on executing queries using the linked server from any tool that can connect to SQL Server, see Executing Queries.